Throughout this offseason’s hiring process, we’ve been able to connect some dots to people who we wouldn’t have otherwise believed to be connected.

Despite operating in varying roles in the same division for a long time, the Nationals’ new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni (who spent the last 10 years with the Red Sox) and new manager Blake Butera (who spent the last the last 10 years with the Rays) had never met in person before Butera’s first interview. In fact, Monday’s introductory press conference for the new skipper was only the second time they had met in person.

Toboni came to learn more about Butera from a phone call from Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, who employed the new Nats manager as his bench coach for Team Italy in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Butera is very close with new Orioles manager Craig Albernaz, who coached him during his only two seasons as a professional baseball player in the lower levels of the Rays minor league system.

And so on and so forth.

Little did we know that when the Nats’ new leadership hired a previously unknown name as their new pitching coach that 1) They would also be retaining at least one beloved holdover from the previous coaching staff and 2) That person would already have a close relationship with the new guy in charge of pitching.

Simon Mathews’ pitching career ended right as the entire world was shutting down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The then-24-year-old right-hander with an 89-mph fastball had maxed out his abilities as an undrafted free agent with the Angels, reaching Triple-A but released by that organization shortly after spring training was halted by Major League Baseball.

Still needing money to pay the rent, Mathews used some personal connections to take a job in business development that he despised but allowed him to then pursue the coaching career that now appealed to him. He spent the free time he had in 2020 doing work for a pair of noted pitching labs (Push Performance in Arizona, Driveline Baseball in Seattle) and met Sean Doolittle, who was working to keep his MLB career going.

The next thing he knew, Mathews was hired by the Reds to run the pitching program at their Dominican Academy, then climbed the organizational ladder to work as a roving pitching instructor and ultimately as Cincinnati’s assistant pitching coach this year.

And then last week this previously unknown 30-year-old was named the Nationals’ new pitching coach, a member of Blake Butera’s still-under-construction staff who is even younger than the majors’ youngest manager since 1972.

From washed-out minor leaguer to big league pitching coach in five years? Was this somehow Mathews’ grand plan all along?

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.”

The youngest major league manager in five decades is going to have a pitching coach even younger than him. One with a significant D.C. connection and a pedigree in modern baseball philosophy.

The Nationals have hired 30-year-old Simon Mathews as their new pitching coach, luring the up-and-comer from the Reds to work for 33-year-old manager Blake Butera.

Mathews, who first made a name for himself as one of the best pitchers in Georgetown history, spent this past season as Cincinnati’s assistant pitching coach, working underneath the highly regarded Derek Johnson. That’s his lone season on a major league staff, but that actually makes him more experienced than Butera, who has never played, coached nor managed above Single-A.

Mathews worked in the Reds organization for five seasons, the first four in the minors. He began in 2021 by implementing the club’s pitching program at its Dominican academy, then was rehab pitching coordinator in 2022. He served as assistant coordinator of rehabilitation and pitching initiatives from 2023-24, then earned his first promotion to the big leagues in 2025 as assistant pitching coach.

Cincinnati’s pitching staff has lowered its ERA and WHIP each of the last four seasons, from a 4.86 ERA that ranked 28th in the majors in 2022 to a 3.86 ERA that ranked 12th this year, and from a 1.389 WHIP that ranked 26th in 2022 to a 1.222 WHIP that ranked seventh this year. The Reds earned a wild card berth this season behind a pitching staff anchored by three homegrown starters in their 20s (Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo) who each finished with an ERA under 3.35 and a WHIP under 1.150.