The Washington Nationals have been one of the busier teams so far this offseason since they got a bit of a head start on a lot of teams with regard to making plans for next season. In fact, it might not even be a stretch to say that the organization has been planning for the future since July when Dave Martinez and Mike Rizzo were fired, but now the franchise finally has a clear direction taking shape.
After hiring new President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni earlier this offseason, he has begun to fill out his front office staff and his staff on the field as well. Blake Butera is the new skipper of the Nationals, and now we are beginning to get some clarity on the rest of his staff.
Back on Monday, it was announced that Michael Johns was going to be brought on by Butera as his bench coach. With Butera being the youngest manager in baseball, him and Toboni sought to bring in a familiar face with experience coaching at the big league level, and the 50-year-old Johns fits that exact profile.
Johns is following Butera from the Tampa Bay Rays organization, and he has served as the first-base coach of the Rays for the past two seasons. Additionally, Johns spent some time in various levels of the minors with the Rays over the course of 8 years, including managing their AAA team in 2023.
The second hire, announced on Tuesday afternoon, comes in the form of Simon Mathews, who will take over as the new pitching coach. This should come as music to many Nationals' fans ears as Mathews has a deep background in analytics and forward-thinking pitching practices, a stark contrast from the old school Jim Hickey who was previously the pitching coach. He also has a background with Driveline Baseball, which focuses on player development by incorporating forward-thinking practices and a scientific approach to fine-tuning one's game.
Mathews comes over from the Cincinnati Reds, where he worked with pitchers like Hunter Greene and Chase Burns, among others, and served as the assistant pitching coach in their organization. Mathews is also only 30-years-old, joining forces with the 33-year-old Butera and 35-year-old Toboni as key cogs to the rebuild.
The final move that has not yet been confirmed but has been reported by numerous sources at this time is Bobby Wilson, a former big league catcher who will take over as the catching coordinator for the Nationals going forward. Wilson played a big role under Bruce Bochy with the Rangers and was pointed to as a big reason for the development of Jonah Heim into a Gold Glove catcher for them.
We will likely continue to see Butera and the Nationals announce the rest of the staff in the next week or so, as the team is likely conducting interviews on a daily basis to confirm their next wave of huge hires. Up next will be a hitting coach as well as first and third base coaches, but we do not yet know of any names that have been connected.
What do you think of the Nationals' new hires? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.