The Nationals just hired their new manager in the form of 33-year-old, Blake Butera. He marks the youngest MLB hire in over 50 years. It is surely a bold decision, but also one of a new age of baseball. The Nationals are erring on the side of cutting edge baseball and leaving the old school mentality that is fading out of the game. Now, I am sure many of you are wondering, who is Blake Butera? Well, this is your profile on the young man that was hired by fellow youngster Paul Toboni.
Early Baseball Playing Career
Butera hails from Madisonville, Louisiana, just over the other side of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. He played good enough baseball to end up at Boston College as a 2nd baseman. He finished his 2015 senior season with a .284 batting average and a .747 OPS.
Butera was never a big weapon, but he did manage to get drafted in the 35th round by the Tampa Bay Rays. Unfortunately, Butera never stood out too much. He play Rookie ball and had a brief Low-A ball stint. His MiLB career lasted two years. He played great in Princeton (Rook) with a .730 OPS, but upon elevation to Low-A-Hudson Valley, his stats plummeted. He quickly shift from playing to managing.
Managerial Career
In the 2017 season, Butera shifting from playing to coach. He was the Bench Coach for the Hudson Valley Renegades, located in Fishkill, NY, just outside of NYC. As you can imagine, Low-A Ball has high turnover at that quickly landed Butera as the Manager in 2018. He remained in that role for two years, both of which they won their division, although without winning the ultimate title.
Minor league baseball took a hiatus in the coronavirus epidemic in 2020. Following the phasing out of the New York-Penn League, Butera became the Manager of the Charleston RiverDogs. This was the reclassified Single-A team of the Rays organization. The move was relatively lateral.
That team went 82-38 and Butera won Manager of the Year. The following year, they went 88-44 and Butera won Manager of the Year, once again. His rise was quickly on the move.
Shift to the Tampa Bay Rays Management
After much success, it was time for Butera to be with the Major League Team. Job security and pay is always a plus, and that was the ultimate goal. Butera could have left town for a better job, perhaps, but he remained with the Rays as the Assistant Field Coordinator, noted as a player development expert.
Butera was soon promoted to Senior Director of Player Development at the end of 2023. This is his most recent role to his now Managerial role with the Nationals.
Team Italy
Amongst his recent role, Butera was added to Team Italy as the bench coach for the World Baseball Classic. He sat under Mike Piazza, who managed the team. The team lost in the Round of 8, but Italy is not a baseball superpower. The experience was good nonetheless.
What to Expect
The Tampa Bay Rays have been a leading team in the analytical aspect of baseball. This has been a method that has taken over across the past decade, or so. Over the past five years, they hav elevated the following names: Wander Franco (Susp.), Shane Baz, Junior Caminero, Shane McLanahan, Randy Arozarena, Kyle Manzardo, and Taj Bradley. This list could go on for a bit longer, but one things has remained true and that is that Tampa Bay is elite at player development.
We can expect Butera to bring his expertise and experience within the Rays organization and priortize player development of the Nationals endless list of prospects and young assets. The team will be analytically driven. It will be a drastic shift from the previous, older regime.
If you are looking to build a team from the ground up, you want to look somewhere where it has happened. Tampa Bay is that place. Butera is young, but he does have nearly four years of true player development experience, on top of his managerial success. The proof is on his resume and with honors.
They key now will be to hire the best possible staff. Butera is young, but surely has connections to bring in the right coaching fits. It is time to build a new culture and let the young guns bring the Nationals to the playoffs sooner than later.
What do you think of the hire? Let me know on X - @jetbets17