The Fredericksburg Nationals officially announced their 2026 team staff in January, including new manager Chris O’Neill.
O’Neill’s hire replaces Billy McMillon, a base/assistant coach with the Washington Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate, the Rochester Red Wings, and 2025 manager with Fredericksburg before it was announced he wouldn’t be returning for 2026.
Who they got in his replacement is someone who is a newcomer to professional baseball, though his coaching career in baseball has seen quite a few chapters, most of which spent at the collegiate level.
Local Ties
O’Neill is very familiar with Virginia, Washington D.C. and Maryland, making stops in all three states during his coaching career. Of the three, it was Maryland, specifically the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, that was his first Division I coaching stint back in 2018.
He was an assistant back in 2018 as the Eagles were top-25 in the nation in stolen bases, qualifying for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tournament that season as well.
After stints at both Marshall, Duke and Bucknell, O’Neill made his way to the nation’s capital and George Washington, where he was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator with the Revolutionaries. He worked primarily with the offense, turning them into one of the best offenses in the A-10 and among mid-major college baseball programs.
He spent three years in DC with plenty of success, but he decided to move elsewhere, making his way down I-95 to Richmond and VCU ahead of the 2025 season, another A-10 program with three NCAA tournament appearances in the 2020s.
The Rams didn’t make the tournament last year with O’Neill as the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator, but unlike what happened at GW, VCU was not a feared offense in the conference.
As a team, they were second-to-last in the A-10 in batting average (.259) and runs (326), last in on-base percentage (.368) and third-to-last in slugging percentage (.405). That, combined with a sub-par pitching staff, saw VCU go 17-37 in 2025, but success has been there for O’Neill, there’s no doubt about that.
Going Younger
O’Neill is only 36 years old, surprisingly, the oldest member of Fredericksburg’s coaching staff heading into the 2026 season.
As has been the case with the new-look big league front office and coaching staff in Washington, a youth revolution of sorts has transpired. If he was hired as a new MLB manager, O’Neill would be the second-youngest in the league only to new Nationals manager Blake Butera.
A Risk Worth Taking
While his coaching resume might not be that of other MiLB managers, his collegiate experience at six different Division I schools, including an ACC program that won the ACC tournament in 2021, has opened the eyes of those within Washington’s organization to give him a shot.
Fredericksburg’s season opener is on April 3 and just as team ownership has changed hands from 2025 to 2026, team personnel will have a fresh look this spring.