It's been 18 days since news first broke the Nationals were hiring Blake Butera as manager. And at long last, today we will finally get to hear from him about his vision for the job and the path that brought him here.

Butera will be formally introduced during a 1:30 p.m. press conference at Nationals Park – you can watch it live on MASN – with president of baseball operations Paul Toboni also scheduled to speak about the first major decision of his tenure here.

Why did it take 2 1/2 weeks from hiring to press conference? Because Oct. 30 was a big day in the Butera household for reasons that had nothing to do with baseball. On the same day he signed his contract with the Nats, Butera’s wife, Caroline Margolis, gave birth to the couple’s first child: Blair Margaux Butera.

With Butera’s immediate priorities focused on family in Raleigh, N.C., the Nationals decided to wait to hold the press conference until this week. Not that he hasn’t already been busy working out of the home office. Butera has hired three members of his coaching staff so far: bench coach Michael Johns, pitching coach Simon Mathews and catching coordinator Bobby Wilson (whose addition has not officially been announced yet but has been reported).

There should be plenty of opportunities for reporters to ask Butera (and Toboni) questions today. Here are some of the most interesting ones …

* How does he plan to win over players?
By now you know Butera is only 33, making him the youngest major league manager in more than 50 years. He also never played, coached nor managed above Single-A. Now, he’s obviously got valid credentials for this job (success as a minor league manager, experience running the Rays’ vaunted farm system) but he’s nevertheless a complete unknown to Nationals players.

A new manager with big league experience (either as a player, coach or manager) walks into a clubhouse already commanding a certain level of respect before anyone meets him. That doesn’t mean he’ll be successful, but it does mean he gets a head start over an inexperienced manager like Butera. So his first task is to convince his new players he’s the real deal.

How does Butera plan to do that? Does it happen through one-on-one phone calls and in-person conversations? Does he prefer to bring the whole team together for a collective meeting? Does he let his actions on the field speak for themselves?

* What’s his overall managerial philosophy?
Though every manager is constrained by the talent on his roster and the directives he gets from above, every manager still has the ability to put his own stamp on a team’s style of play.

What does a Butera-managed team look like? Does he believe in the power of the long ball? Does he prioritize contact? Patience? Speed on the bases? What does he value in a pitching staff: Velocity, command, spin? And most importantly, what are his thoughts on the sacrifice bunt?

* What else is he looking for in a coaching staff?
Given his personal lack of experience, conventional wisdom says Butera will want to have some older coaches on his staff who have been here and done that before. He appears to have that in Johns, the 50-year-old former Rays minor league manager and major league first base coach who will now be his right-hand man in the dugout. Mathews, meanwhile, is only 30, though he was the Reds’ assistant pitching coach and has prior experience working for outside pitching labs like Driveline.

Wilson was a longtime MLB catcher and a member of Bruce Bochy’s coaching staff in Texas in recent seasons. Who else could join that group in the coming days? And is anyone who previously worked for Davey Martinez and Miguel Cairo (who was just hired as the Orioles’ infield coach, by the way) in the running to return, such as Sean Doolittle or Chris Johnson?

* Does he offer any hints about his thoughts on the Nats’ current roster?
Butera hasn’t had a lot of time to evaluate his new team’s group of players yet, but surely he has some initial thoughts. It will be interesting to hear what names he brings up on his own, and what he has to say about others whose names are brought up to him.

Does he view CJ Abrams as the starting shortstop? Does he view Luis Garcia Jr. as an important part of the future? Does he expect Keibert Ruiz to be his No. 1 catcher? Beyond MacKenzie Gore, who else is assured of a spot in the Opening Day rotation? Is Jose A. Ferrer closer material?

We may not get concrete answers to those questions quite yet, but Butera may offer enough clues in his answers to draw a few conclusions.