Blake Butera’s right-hand man in the dugout will be a familiar face to the Nationals’ new manager, not to mention one with more experience at the sport’s higher levels.
Butera has selected Michael Johns as his bench coach, the club officially announced Monday evening, tabbing his longtime Rays colleague to work alongside him in D.C.
Johns, 50, has worked in various capacities for the Rays since 2008, including nine seasons as a minor league manager, culminating with an 88-62 record and league finals appearance with Triple-A Durham in 2023. He spent the last two seasons as Tampa Bay’s first base coach, his lone experience in the major leagues.
A former infielder in the Rockies’ farm system in the late ’90s, Johns has since made a name for himself as an instructor for a franchise known for having one of the sport’s best player development pipelines. He served five seasons (2018-22) as Tampa Bay’s minor league field coordinator, tasked with establishing a consistent program for all the organization’s affiliates.
Johns and Butera overlapped nine seasons with the Rays, forming a connection that led to their current reunion with the Nationals. Butera, 33, is 17 years younger than his new bench coach and figures to lean heavily on Johns’ expertise both in establishing pregame routines and in-game decision-making.
“Michael shares the same values that are important to me and to our organization,” Butera said in a statement released by the team. “He’s humble, has an incredible work ethic and his preparation and attention to detail are unmatched. He played a major role in building Tampa Bay’s player development system and brings valuable recent major league experience. More than anything, I know he’ll do everything he can to help our players, staff and organization succeed.”
Johns’ career with the Rays began in 2008, when he was a coach for Single-A Hudson Valley. He climbed up the organizational ladder, managing Rookie-level Princeton (2010-12), Hudson Valley (2013), Single-A Bowling Green (2014) and Single-A Charlotte (2015-17). After his five seasons as minor league field coordinator, he returned to the dugout in 2023 as Triple-A Durham manager before getting promoted to Kevin Cash’s major league staff in 2024.
Among Johns’ coaching responsibilities in Tampa Bay was baserunning, and he oversaw a successful team in that area of the game. The Rays led the majors with 194 stolen bases this season and ranked fifth with an 80 percent success rate. They rated as the major leagues' second-best baserunning team, according to FanGraphs’ metric, with 13.3 Baserunning Runs Above Average.
The Nationals ranked 10th in the majors with 132 stolen bases but were successful on only 73 percent of attempts, the third-worst rate in the sport. They finished the season with -0.9 Baserunning Runs Above Average, ranking 15th in the majors.
Johns is the first coach hired by Butera, who got the managerial job Oct. 30 but has not been formally introduced yet because his wife gave birth to the couple’s first child that same day. With the front office currently in Las Vegas for the annual GM Meetings, the Nats are expected to hold a press conference sometime next week for the majors’ youngest manager since 1972.
Butera still has a host of other coaches to hire to fill out his staff. New president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said last week he would make those hires in conjunction with the rookie manager, seeking a wide variety of experiences for those roles.
“It’s about filling the voids that maybe Blake has,” Toboni said. “First and foremost, we want folks with character that are aligned with how we want to build this out. But then two, we want a level of expertise that can take shape in a number of different ways, whether that’s experience in the major leagues and an understanding of how to navigate in-game decision-making and experience doing so, or competence or expertise in the pitching or the hitting or in the defensive spaces. We want to create a really well informed staff that also does a great job connecting with players and staff members. I think what, hopefully, will shine through is the diversity of experiences and backgrounds will really play a big role as well.”