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On what was supposed to be a quiet off-day from this year’s very entertaining World Series, the Nationals made headlines Thursday by reportedly hiring Blake Butera to be their new manager.
At just 33 years old, Butera will become the youngest major league manager since the Twins hired Frank Quilici in 1972, an odd connection to the former edition of the Washington baseball team.
Butera comes from the Rays, where he mostly worked in the minor league system. So what do we know about him?
He most recently served as Tampa Bay’s senior director of player development over the past two years. Before that, he spent one season as a minor league coach and then four as a manager on the Rays farm, which has been highly regarded as one of the best player development systems in baseball. He took his first job as manager when he was just 25 years old, three years after the Rays selected him in the 35th round of the 2015 MLB Draft as an infielder out of Boston College.
The Louisiana native went 258-144 (.642) in his four years managing short-season Single-A Hudson Valley and Single-A Charleston with four first-place finishes. In his final two seasons at the helm in Charleston, he went 170-82 (.675) and won back-to-back Carolina League championships.
Before immediately going into coaching after retiring from his playing career, Butera spent two seasons playing at the rookie and low Single-A levels of the Rays system. Over 80 minor league games where he primarily played second and third base, the right-handed hitter slashed .235/.342/.327 with a .669 OPS, 13 doubles, one triple, three home runs, 31 RBIs and eight stolen bases.
He played under new Orioles manager Craig Albernaz in both seasons. Albernaz tweeted yesterday in response to the news: “My guy!!! Elite human, friend, husband, and teacher. I hope the rest of the league is ready for this impact. I’m proud of you brother.” He also posted a picture of the two of them together during their time in Tampa Bay’s organization.
Butera was also teammates with former National Nathaniel Lowe at Hudson Valley during the 2016 season.
Butera was clearly a fast-riser in the Rays organization. He quickly went from player to coach to manager to one year as an assistant minor league field coordinator to two years as the senior director of player development.
He also has coaching experience at the international level, most notably serving as Hall of Famer Mike Piazza’s bench coach with Team Italy at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Under their tutelage, the Italian team reached the quarterfinals before losing to Shohei Ohtani and Team Japan 9-3 at the Tokyo Dome.
Another odd Rays/Nationals connection in that game was Joe La Sorsa being credited as the losing pitcher. Butera managed La Sorsa in the Rays system before the left-hander was claimed by the Nats in June 2023.
Per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi, “Butera received strong reviews for his work as the Team Italy bench coach.” Also per Morosi, Piazza had this to say about the Nats hiring his former bench coach: “I think it’s a great hire and I’m so happy for him. He is (a) very loyal, diligent, efficient, and dedicated baseball man. He commands respect with his knowledge and demeanor. He will always strive to put his players in a position to succeed. It was a pleasure to work with him.”
Butera was also a quality control coach for Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Winter League and a coach for the Perth Heat of the Australian Baseball League.
But his experience in the analytically-driven Rays front office is what made Butera a strong candidate to make the unexpected leap to first-time major league manager. His background of using advanced metrics in his managing and player development styles clearly aligns with what new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni is trying to bring to the Nationals.
With Butera at 33 and Toboni at 35, the Nationals now have the youngest duo heading an organization in the sport. And Butera now takes over as the youngest head coach/manager of the four major professional sports teams in Washington, beating the Capitals’ Spencer Carbery by 11 years. The Spirit’s Adrián González is next overall at 36.
But Butera is now one of the oldest in the Nats’ young clubhouse. As of right now, Trevor Williams is the only player on the 40-man roster who is older than the new skipper by just 3 ½ months. Butera is older than pending free agent Josh Bell by a week.
A breath of young, fresh air could be exactly what this Nationals team – headlined by young stars James Wood, CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews and MacKenzie Gore – needs as they look to get back into contention in the challenging National League East.
As for the local beat, Butera is younger than most of the area’s Nats reporters. That includes yours truly, who will be covering a manager younger than myself for the first time as I am about four months older than him. A real shock to my perception of youth. Only our colleagues at The Washington Post, Andrew Golden and Spencer Nusbaum, are younger.
The Nats are going with a young-and-upcoming skipper for their young-and-upcoming team. Now we wait to hear from the two young men in charge.
Update: The Nationals officially named Butera the eighth manager in team history this morning. Along with that comes the news that he and his wife, Caroline Margolis, welcomed their first child, Blair Margaux Butera, on Thursday. The Buteras will remember Oct. 30, 2025 as a very special day for the family forever!
