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ORLANDO, Fla. – Though they could still add a few more names in the next week or two, the Nationals’ 2026 coaching staff essentially is complete. It’s a group featuring a bunch of 30-somethings, most of them having never played in the major leagues, more than half of them having never coached in the major leagues.
Blake Butera, at 33 the majors’ youngest manager in more than five decades, has assembled a diverse staff that features a few experienced coaches but plenty of others who have taken a less conventional path to D.C.
The oldest member of the staff is 50-year-old Michael Johns, who becomes Butera’s bench coach after two seasons as first base coach with the Rays, for whom he also managed in the minors for nine seasons. The only others in their 40s are catching coach/run game coordinator Bobby Wilson (42), who spent the last five seasons as Rangers catching coach following a 10-year playing career, and assistant pitching/bullpen coach Dustin Glant (44), who has some minor league coaching experience but most recently served as pitching coach at Indiana University.
Besides Wilson, the only others to play in the big leagues were Sean Doolittle (39), who returns as assistant pitching coach, and first base/outfield/baserunning coach Corey Ray (31), who appeared in one game for the Brewers in 2021 before becoming a minor league manager in the Cubs organization.
The seven staff members who have coached in the majors before are Johns, Doolittle, Wilson, field coordinator Tyler Smarslok (33, formerly Marlins first base coach), hitting coach Matt Borgschulte (35, formerly Orioles and Twins hitting coach), pitching coach Simon Mathews (30, formerly Reds assistant pitching coach) and bullpen catcher/development coach Grant Anders (29, formerly Orioles development coach).
The five staff members who have never coached in the majors before are Butera, Glant, Ray, third base/infield coach Victor Estevez (37, previously Brewers minor league manager) and Andrew Aydt (30, previously with Driveline Baseball).
Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni is admittedly taking a gamble hiring this many young and inexperienced coaches. But Toboni, himself only 35, believes those coaches’ various strengths and backgrounds outweigh their lack of traditional experience.
“Let’s not pretend that it’s not a thing. We have a number of staff members that don’t have major league experience,” he said. “But more than that, what I think about is, if we have the right people in the right positions, we’re going to get a month into the season and folks are going to be like: ‘Oh, remember when we were worrying about these guys not having experience? Now they do.’
“There are undoubtedly things that you learn as part of a major league season that they haven’t been exposed to now. Do we have a number of people on the staff that have that experience? Yeah. … We have a number of those folks. It’s just about tapping into what those experiences (are), how they can benefit us and helping surround and support the rest of the group that maybe doesn’t have that experience until they can experience those themselves.”
