ORLANDO, Fla. – Though filling out what’s now a 12-man coaching staff has occupied the majority of Blake Butera’s time the last month, the Nationals’ new manager has also made a point to reach out to his entire roster of players and start to develop relationships with every one of them long before they report to spring training.

His biggest takeaway from those conversations? These players are extremely motivated to get better, and they’re ready to put in the work that will be required.

“Obviously, I didn’t get to talk to these guys until after I signed on for the job,” Butera said. “But I told (president of baseball operations Paul Toboni) right away: ‘Man, I was really excited about this.’”

The roster Butera inherits is one of the youngest and least experienced in baseball. It’s coming off a hugely disappointing season that included 96 losses, bottom-of-the-league rankings in a number of meaningful categories and the midsummer firings of their longtime general manager and manager.

Several players have acknowledged the team’s struggles in fundamental areas and a desire to clean that up, no matter their own personal accomplishments. And they quickly conveyed that message to their rookie manager.

As significant as Blake Butera’s hiring was – and, let’s be clear, it’s incredibly significant – there has been just as much interest in learning who will fill out the new Nationals manager’s coaching staff.

Given Butera’s almost unprecedented youth (at 33, he’s the youngest major league manager since 1972) and lack of experience (he never played, coached nor managed above Single-A), conventional wisdom said he would look to surround himself with older, more experienced coaches.

That’s partially the case so far, but not entirely the case.

The Nats are still in the process of hiring several more staff members, so we don’t know what the full makeup will look like yet. But while Butera has hired a more experienced bench coach in 50-year-old Michael Johns, his pitching coach (Simon Mathews) is actually only 30. And while the other three known members of the staff (Bobby Wilson, Sean Doolittle, Tyler Smarslok) all have some big league coaching experience, their ages range between 33 and 42.

“I don’t think we really set out to either hire for or not for experience,” Butera said. “I think what was first and foremost was that we wanted to bring in people who align with our values. We wanted people that would help hold each other accountable, come in with a tremendous amount of work ethic and make sure they were in this thing for the right reasons.”

Blake Butera’s right-hand man in the dugout will be a familiar face to the Nationals’ new manager, not to mention one with more experience at the sport’s higher levels.

Butera has selected Michael Johns as his bench coach, the club officially announced Monday evening, tabbing his longtime Rays colleague to work alongside him in D.C.

Johns, 50, has worked in various capacities for the Rays since 2008, including nine seasons as a minor league manager, culminating with an 88-62 record and league finals appearance with Triple-A Durham in 2023. He spent the last two seasons as Tampa Bay’s first base coach, his lone experience in the major leagues.

A former infielder in the Rockies’ farm system in the late ’90s, Johns has since made a name for himself as an instructor for a franchise known for having one of the sport’s best player development pipelines. He served five seasons (2018-22) as Tampa Bay’s minor league field coordinator, tasked with establishing a consistent program for all the organization’s affiliates.

Johns and Butera overlapped nine seasons with the Rays, forming a connection that led to their current reunion with the Nationals. Butera, 33, is 17 years younger than his new bench coach and figures to lean heavily on Johns’ expertise both in establishing pregame routines and in-game decision-making.