The Washington Nationals have hired Blake Butera as their new manager.
At 33, Butera is the youngest man hired to manage a team since the Minnesota Twins hired Frank Quilici back in 1972. Quilici managed the Twins for 3½ seasons guiding them to a 280-287 record. The Twins dismissed Quilici at the end of the 1975 season replacing him with former Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos manager Gene Mauch.
Growing up outside of New Orleans, Butera played collegiate baseball at Boston College from 2011 through 2015 before being drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays. After two seasons as a minor league player, Butera remained with the Rays organization becoming the manager of their High-A affiliate Hudson Valley Renegades at the age of 25. Butera would later manage the Charleston RiverDogs and guide them to consecutive Carolina League championships in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, Butera joined the Rays' front office as Assistant Field Director before being promoted to Senior Director of Player Development the following year.
Despite his age, Butera will be managing a team mostly younger than him. The Nationals have not had a winning season since their World Series triumph in 2019. The Nats fired both manager Dave Martinez and longtime GM Mike Rizzo last July. Miguel Cairo became the interim manager, but clearly Paul Toboni, the new President of Baseball Operations (who is only 35 himself), wanted someone from his generational point of view to oversee the club in the dugout. Toboni spent a decade in the Boston Red Sox front office rising to Assistant GM in 2023.
Realistically, there will probably be some more growing pains for the Nats but if Butera and Toboni can collaborate successfully, the Nats could be a juggernaut by the end of this decade.
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