Nationals hire Driveline's Travis Fitta as Triple-A hitting coach

Travis Fitta, Driveline Baseball's hitting coordinator, has joined the Washington Nationals as the Triple-A hitting coach in Rochester, a hire that adds another data-forward voice to the club's growing development staff. The move brings a specialist in swing design and body-driven hitting work into the day-to-day of top prospects and organizational depth.

The hire, announced Jan. 15, continues a clear pattern under the Nationals' new regime led by Paul Toboni: recruiting young, analytically inclined coaches and specialists from outside traditional team pipelines. The trend already produced assistant hitting coach Andrew Aydt, another Driveline alumnus now on the major-league staff. Those hires signal a deliberate push to modernize hitting instruction across levels rather than simply patching major-league lineup holes.

Fitta's background centers on optimizing how hitters move and sequence the body through the swing. At Driveline he worked with a range of big-league and fringe major-league hitters, applying measurement tools and swing theory to change launch angles, contact quality, and attack plans. This offseason a video surfaced of his work with Jacob Young as Fitta helped translate Young’s athleticism into a cleaner, more repeatable swing. Fitta also worked with Amed Rosario during an offseason that preceded a markedly improved batted-ball profile in 2025.

For Nationals prospects, the practical upside is clear. Yohandy Morales — frequently tagged in scouting reports as needing swing tweaks despite obvious raw power — stands to benefit from daily technical work in Triple-A. If Morales opens the year in Rochester, he’ll have hands-on access to Fitta’s swing design approach and the lab-style analysis that comes with Driveline training. That could accelerate Morales’ ability to get more launch angle and reduce grounders, turning raw power into consistent extra-base production.

Beyond individual prospects, the hire tells a broader story about how the organization plans to grow talent. Toboni and company are assembling a development pipeline that mixes analytics, biomechanics, and hands-on coaching. Expect changes in batted-ball profiles, plate approach, and the speed of mechanical fixes across the upper minors as that philosophy filters down.

This is not a quick fix for big-league struggles, but it is a structural one. For fans and local followers of the Rochester crew, watch how hitters respond early in spring training and through the first month of the season — Rochester will be where new processes are tested and refined. If Fitta’s lab work translates to better contact and more consistent launch outcomes, the Nationals' investment in modernizing their staff could pay visible dividends in the seasons ahead.