If you missed it, the Washington Nationals hired 33 year old Blake Butera to be their next manager. He will be the youngest manager in over 5o years. This is a bold hire and a move that I like. However,
for this to work, the Nationals need to put experience around their young manager.
Bringing youth into the dugout is a smart move from Paul Toboni. Over the last couple years, things had gotten stale under Davey Martinez and his staff. Both Martinez, as well as his hitting and pitching coaches were in their 60’s. You definitely got the vibe that those guys were dinosaurs in the modern game. We are not going to get that vibe with Butera.
However, bringing in a manager this young presents a new set of issues. One of the biggest ones is the fact that these young managers don’t know how to operate in a big league clubhouse. That certainly applies to Butera.
While he has plenty of experience in the Minor Leagues and in the front office, Butera has never worked in a Major League dugout. That will be a new experience for him. Being the boss of big league players is going to be new for the 33 year old, who may be younger than some of the players on the roster.
Butera will have to earn the trust of the clubhouse, especially the veteran players. Luckily, the Nats are a young team, so the players and managers will be able to grow together. However, he will still have to earn their trust.
The one hire Butera has to nail in order to do that is the bench coach. A bench coach is the manager’s right hand man. They sit right next to the manager on the bench and when the manager gets ejected, it is the bench coach that takes over. There is a reason a lot of managerial hires are just sitting bench coaches.
For Butera, he is going to have to bring an experienced guy with him to the position. The Locked on Nationals podcast touched on this and actually brought up a few really good names. They talked about how it should either be a guy who has been a manager before or has been a bench coach for a long time. I agree with that sentiment.
A couple guys that stick out to me are David Ross and Brandon Hyde. Ross would probably be my favorite. He has seen it all both as a player and as a manager. Ross was a beloved catcher on World Series teams in Boston and Chicago. Only a few years after retiring, Ross jumped into management. He coached the Cubs from 2020-2023.
Ross is also a name with a lot of cache around the league. He is one of those guys who just demands respect. The 48 year old also knows what it is like to be a manager, as well as a player. He would do a great job creating a culture and furthering Butera’s vision.
Brandon Hyde is another guy I would call. The Nats interviewed him for the managerial job, but he did not get it. It does not look like Hyde will get back into management this season. Having worked for the Orioles for many years, he knows what it takes to dig out of a rebuild.
With that managerial experience with a young team, Hyde would be a great resource for Butera. He also knows what it is like to work with an analytics heavy organization, having done it in Baltimore. If Hyde has the itch to work right away, he would be a great hire.
I love that the Nationals have gone young with their hires so far. However, they need to balance things out with experience and some older heads. The Nationals desperately needed young voices with new ideas and they got them. Now it is time to support those guys with some experienced figures.
