The Washington Nationals have finally named their new skipper. After spending recent weeks filling out his new front office around him after taking over the role of President of Baseball Operations within the Nationals, new leading man Paul Toboni has completed arguably the most difficult part of his offseason.
News and rumors surrounding the decisions were hard to come by, as it's clear the new front office was choosing to keep whispers close to the vest. The Nationals wanted to make the decision that made the most sense for the overall direction for the future of the organization, and their most recent choice seems to reflect that in a big way.
We touched on a handful of candidates who were interviewed for the role including Miguel Cairo, Brandon Hyde, and Craig Albernaz, who took the job with the Baltimore Orioles, but none of them ended up getting the job. In fact, the new decision is one that seems a bit surprising on the surface, but completely aligns with Toboni's mindset.
The next manager for the Washington Nationals will be Blake Butera, and he will become the youngest person to hold the job in the majors in over half a century, according to ESPN. At just 33-years-old, he is getting a gigantic opportunity to lead a big league organization that has experienced success fairly recently, and whose fanbase is starving to return to contention.
Butera has been a minor league manager within the Tampa Bay Rays organization for 4 seasons, and had a 258-144 record, with both of his final seasons resulting in championships with Low-A Charleston. Obviously, being a big league manager is a whole lot different than managing in the lower levels of the minors, but according to Jeff Passan, Butera was regarded by many in the industry as a future manager at higher levels.
Besides managing, Butera was the Senior Player Development Director for the Rays, and it was his combination of managerial and player development experience that stood out to Toboni among other candidates who interviewed for the position. Between the 35-year-old Toboni and 33-year-old Butera, the Lerner family is putting a ton of trust into their new young leaders to lead an even younger team, and hopefully it all ends up paying off.
The bottom line is that this current approach is completely different than the previous era under Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez, who both had an old-school approach to many areas of the game that ultimately cost them their jobs. It's no secret that Toboni is taking a massive risk here, but the potential for this to pay off in the long run is the kind of upside that the Nationals are in prime position to take right now, and I can't wait to see what sort of moves the organization makes to further support their new manager with on-field product.
What do you think of the Nationals hiring Blake Butera? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.