Yesterday, Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni took some questions from local media about his hiring of Blake Butera. This was the first time he shed light on the process and what is next. A lot of interesting stuff came out of the presser, so I wanted to talk about it.
It has been close to a week since the Nats made Blake Butera the youngest manager in over 50 years. This is the first time we got to hear about the process though. We did not get to hear from Butera himself, but that is for good reason. On the same day as his hire was reported, his wife was giving birth to their first child. Talk about a wild day!
With that in mind, we are not going to hear from Butera for a little longer. One fun nugget Toboni talked about in the presser was that Butera was in the hospital with his wife when Jeff Passan broke the news that he would be hired by the Nats. The baby came only hours later. This must be a wild time for Butera and I can’t wait to hear from him.
The thing that Toboni kept touching on in his presser was how aligned he and Butera are. In his initial presser with the Nats, Toboni talked a lot about trusting people. Butera is a person that Toboni trusts. Toboni said that he is making a bet on Blake Butera the person.
However, Paul Toboni did not just hire a manager because he thought he was a good guy. Despite having no experience in an MLB dugout, Toboni was adamant that Butera was the best man for the job. While he does not have experience in an MLB dugout, Butera still has plenty of experience. Toboni touched on all of the things Butera has already done.
Between being a successful Minor League manager and having experience in the front office, Butera knows a lot about the operation. Despite being so young, Butera will not be a pushover. Toboni mentioned that he was looking for a manager who could hold the players and staff accountable. That piece about the staff is important to me because that did not seem like it was happening in previous seasons.
While Toboni was non-committal on a coaching staff, he did hint at bringing in some experience. He said that Blake is humble enough to know he needs people with expertise around him. Like he said before hiring Butera, MLB experience is a feather in the cap but not a requirement.
As we wrote about earlier in the week, I do think Butera needs to bring in an older head as a bench coach. With Butera being young and not having MLB experience, he needs someone around him to lean on that knows what it is like.
For the hitting and pitching coach positions, I would be happy if they continued to go in this younger, outside the box direction. Right now, it really seems like there is a vision and alignment in the Nats organization. That is something Toboni values and it looks like he has that.
I am excited for this new era of Nats baseball. There is a lot we still do not know, but one thing we do know is that it will look a lot different than it used to. The process will be different, the voices will be a lot younger and some ideas will be different. This was needed and hopefully it works out.