Baseball – a game that spans generations around the globe – is a vast world. And yet, sometimes we discover hidden connections that make it seem oh so tiny.

Much like that Disneyland theme ride says: It’s a small world after all.

When the Nationals announced Blake Butera as their eighth manager last week, very few people (if any) in local circles knew much about the 33-year-old former senior director of player development with the Rays.

In fact, even the guy who hired him, new Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, had only heard about Butera without ever meeting him prior to the interview process, though he did scout Butera as a draft prospect coming out of Boston College in 2015.

“We didn't know each other personally,” Toboni explained Tuesday during a Zoom call with reporters to discuss his first major hire. “I heard a lot about him, actually, even though I'm not much older than him (35), I scouted him when he was at Boston College. We just have a lot of mutual connections where I'm actually surprised that I had never met him prior to this process kicking off. So many mutual connections. I can't remember exactly the first time I really heard about him, but there had been a number of people over the years that had told me about Blake. I really went into this process having an understanding of what I thought it was going to be like, but didn't honestly know until I really hopped into it. I'm really fortunate that we did reach out to interview him because he blew me away throughout the process.”

Even without knowing his new boss and his new organization much, Butera already knew someone in the area. And that person was also new here, accepting a job he’s never had before.

As it turns out, Craig Albernaz, the 43-year-old former associate manager with the Guardians who was just hired to be the new skipper for the Orioles, is very close with Butera from their time together in the Rays system.

When Butera was drafted by the Rays in the 35th round of the 2015 MLB Draft, Albernaz was one of his first coaches as a professional baseball player with the Rookie-level Princeton Rays. Then when Butera moved up to low Single-A in 2016, Albernaz also moved up to Hudson Valley to continue coaching the infielder. And a bond was formed.

In 2017, Butera retired from playing and went straight into coaching for the first time. At the same time, Albernaz was named manager for the first time at Hudson Valley. When Albernaz was promoted to High-A Bowling Green in 2018, who replaced him? Who else but his good friend Butera.

Their careers took them to different places from that point. Albernaz worked in various coaching roles in San Francisco and Cleveland over the next six years. Butera shifted to the Rays’ front office.

But now those paths have led the two friends to the DMV. And while Toboni discussed his decision to hire Butera (whose wife gave birth to the couple’s first child on the same day he accepted the job) on Tuesday, up I-95 Albernaz offered his support to his longtime friend during his own introductory press conference in Baltimore.

“I am so proud of Blake,” Albernaz said Tuesday during his presser in the Warehouse at Camden Yards. “I’m more proud of Blake getting that job than me sitting here, which is crazy to say. Me and Blake have a close relationship. When he first got drafted as a player, that was my first year coaching, on the same team. My first year managing in the minor leagues was his first year coaching. We were together on the same staff. I’m just so pumped for him and Caroline. It’s — I don’t want to get emotional — but I’m just proud of him. Being so young, at 33, taking that job, we talk every day, so we keep each other in the loop every single day and I couldn’t be prouder.”

Albernaz was so proud of Butera getting the job that his first tweets as the new Orioles manager were about his good friend getting hired. One included an old picture of the two of them in the Rays system.

Albernaz plans to attend Butera’s introductory press conference at Nationals Park in the coming weeks, if his schedule allows it. They’ll see each other at next month’s Winter Meetings and maybe at each other’s new houses, now that they’ll be living so close to one another.

Then the next time the two men will see each other will be when the Nats and Orioles play a home-and-home exhibition series to finish spring training on Sunday, March 22 at Camden Yards and on Monday, March 23 at Nats Park.

The two teams will meet in the regular season for a three-game weekend series in D.C. on May 15-17, and then for three more games in Baltimore on June 26-28.

The Beltway Series has always been a unique, complex rivalry. But the additions of these two new managers who are best friends will make it extra spicy in 2026 and for years to come.