Doolittle remaining on Nats coaching staff, exact role TBD

While most of today’s festivities at Nationals Park were focused on the official introduction of 33-year-old Blake Butera as the Nationals’ new manager, some news on his coaching staff also came out.

Sean Doolittle, the Nats’ former All-Star closer and fan favorite reliever who became a pitching strategist after his playing career on former manager Davey Martinez’s coaching staff, will remain on Butera’s staff, new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni announced in a scrum with the local media after today’s press conference. Doolittle’s exact title has not yet been determined, but Toboni believes that will be made known in the next week or two.

“Sean Doolittle is going to be coming back to the staff, so we're really excited about that,” Toboni said. “Sean, I just really liked getting to know him over the course of the past month, or however long it's been. I think the world of him. And coincidentally, he's got a great relationship with the pitching coach that we hired (Simon Mathews). They're very tight, so it ended up just being a really good relationship, I think, from the get-go, and it actually became an appealing part of Simon signing on here. Those decisions were totally independent of each other, but it turned out to be a really nice thing. So it speaks to Sean and the type of person he is, and how good he is at what he does.”

A product of the University of Virginia, Doolittle came to the Nationals along with fellow reliever Ryan Madson in a July 2017 trade with the Athletics. The left-hander was named an All-Star in 2018, with the All-Star Game taking place at Nationals Park for the first time, and he was one of Martinez’s few trusted high-leverage relievers during their run to a World Series championship in 2019.

Doolittle became a free agent after the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and after stops in Cincinnati and Seattle, returned to the Nationals in March 2022. But after six appearances, he underwent an internal brace procedure on the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in July, which ended his season.

After re-signing with the Nats in the offseason on a minor league deal, Doolittle was unable to fully recover from his elbow surgery and also suffered a knee injury in June 2023, limiting him to just 11 minor league appearances. He announced his retirement from playing professional baseball on Sept. 23, 2023.

Doolittle was then hired to be a pitching strategist on Martinez’s staff ahead of the 2024 season, a position he held the last two years. Under his tutelage alongside former pitching coach Jim Hickey, the Nationals’ team ERA improved from 5.02 (27th in the major leagues) in 2023 to 4.30 (23rd) in 2024. The team did, however, take a step backward in 2025, collectively pitching to a 5.35 ERA for the second-worst mark in the bigs.

But Doolittle has always been praised by players and fellow coaches alike for his work on the staff. His familiarity with the current roster also helps Toboni, Butera and other coaches have a resource who already knows the players.

“It's a huge thing,” Toboni said. “So a couple different things with Sean. One familiarity with how we've done it here in the past. Also the relationships he has with all the players. Also the fact that he's worn a big league uniform as a player. There are just so many different ways that I think he will complement Simon well. And so yeah, ecstatic to have him back.”

Doolittle also has experience in implementing analytical data, which goes back to his own playing days, and he uses it to help translate those numbers to current players. Of course, that appealed to the Nationals’ new analytically-driven leadership.

“Yeah, that's part of it,” Toboni said. “Like I mentioned, though, the other part of it is, I think he's able to empathize in ways with players that maybe others aren't because he's been out there on the bump and in playoff atmospheres. He can empathize with what it's like to really have four or five outings in a row where you really struggle, and kind of the mental games that you're playing and all that. It's all of it. It's not just that Sean's a really bright, forward-thinking pitching coach, which he is. It's kind of all of it together that makes him pretty special.”

Butera has only been on the job for a couple of weeks. But in the 20-plus conversations he’s already had with his new players, Doolittle’s name frequently was mentioned by the pitchers.

“What stood out right away was when I was talking with all the pitchers separately, every time, unsolicited, they brought up Sean and just how impactful he's been on each of their careers, and how they were hoping to have him back,” Butera said in his own scrum with reporters after the press conference. “And just the positive sentiment around Sean was something right away where I was like, 'All right, I wasn't even asking for this.’ So it was amazing to hear that type of feedback. And then obviously getting to talk to Sean myself, the thing that was most evident to me was just how much he cares about every pitcher. The amount of information he shared with me, the amount of times he reached out: He does not care what the role is. He just wants to help these guys get better, which is pretty important and impressive.”

While we wait to find out what his exact role will be, Doolittle now joins Butera’s staff that already consists of bench coach Michael Johns and pitching coach Mathews. There weren’t expected to be many holdovers from the previous regime, but Doolittle and assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson figured to be the coaches most likely retained due to their use of analytics and popularity among the players. Former bench coach and interim manager Miguel Cairo interviewed for the managerial position before Butera was hired on Oct. 30.

Cairo recently joined Craig Albernaz’s staff with the Orioles as major league infield coach and former hitting coach Darnell Coles joined the Braves as an assistant hitting coach.

But Nationals new and old are happy to have Doolittle back in Washington.

“It's tough to not like Sean, you know what I mean?” Toboni said. “He's such a great person, and then just how he thinks about the game. He's bright and he's creative. It's obvious to me, too, that his care factor is through the roof, which, candidly, is not always the case, especially for guys that have already carved out really successful careers. But it is for Sean and he's really passionate about doing a great job in this role, which is exciting for us.”