For generations, the division between a franchise’s front office and the manager’s office was clear-cut. The general manager’s job was to assemble the team’s roster. And the manager’s job was to use that roster as he saw fit.

That’s the way the Nationals operated under Mike Rizzo, who always insisted he let his managers make out their own lineup cards and decide on their own when to pull a starting pitcher and who to use out of the bullpen. That doesn’t mean Rizzo didn’t have opinions. Strong ones. Nearly every night during his 17-year tenure, he went into the manager’s office postgame and discussed all aspects of the just-completed game, often raising his voice about any decisions he didn’t exactly agree with.

But Rizzo never ordered his managers to fill out a lineup card a certain way. When Davey Martinez decided to move Kyle Schwarber into the leadoff spot, that was his own decision. When Dusty Baker decided to keep a slumping Jayson Werth in the 2-spot for Game 5 of the 2017 National League Division Series against the Cubs instead of starting Howie Kendrick in his place, that was his own decision. And when Matt Williams decided to pull Jordan Zimmermann in favor of Drew Storen with two outs in the ninth, a runner on first and the Nats leading the Giants 1-0 in Game 2 of the 2014 NLDS … well, that was solely his own decision.

That’s just the way it was always done. It’s not, however, necessarily the way it’s always done anymore.

Over the last decade-plus, more and more front offices have been dictating the usage of certain players to their managers. Smart executives well-versed in analytics create optimized lineups, mandates about starting pitchers only facing opposing hitters twice per game and specific situations that should fall upon specific relievers. And in some cases, these are some of the most successful teams in baseball: The Dodgers and Yankees, in particular, are among the organizations believed to operate this way.

So one of the underlying questions about the Nationals’ complete overhaul this winter concerns this very subject. New president of baseball operations Paul Toboni has an analytics background and comes from a Red Sox organization known for doing things a certain way. New manager Blake Butera, meanwhile, comes from a Rays organization that has been at the forefront of this new-age philosophy. (He’s also only 33 and has never played nor managed above low Single-A, so it’s not like he already has the track record to warrant autonomy.)

In speaking with reporters Tuesday about his first major hiring since taking over the job a month ago, Toboni spoke of the immediate connection he feels with Butera and a desire to work together for years to come.

What does that mean when it comes to the day-to-day decisions that help a team win or lose a ballgame?

“So much of this work is done before the game starts,” Toboni said. “And I think our job as the front office is to provide Blake with all the information he needs to be successful. And then if we do a really good job building this relationship that hopefully is built on a foundation of trust, when the game starts, it’s like: ‘Blake, you go get ’em.’ And we fully entrust and empower him to make the decisions that he needs to make to be a really good in-game decision-maker.”

Toboni was careful not to come right out and say he and his front office staffers will be writing out lineup cards. He’s saying he’s going to let his manager manage.

But it’s not hard to read between the lines and see perhaps a different approach than we’ve seen around these parts before. This is probably going to be a more collaborative effort than it was during the Rizzo-Martinez era. And that’s not a bad thing.

Baseball is in the information age right now, and the Nationals admittedly have lagged behind many other franchises in the sport in that regard. They do need to be careful not to take it too far and avoid making every single in-game decision based on data with no regard for the feel of the moment. But there’s nothing wrong with making sure Butera and his coaching staff have every bit of information they need when they take the field every night, then trusting them to implement it in a manner that gives their players the best chance for success.

“Blake also has a unique perspective in that respect, too, coming from a front office,” Toboni said. “So I think he’s pretty well-equipped to be a really good in-game strategist right from the get-go.”