Baseball – a game that spans generations around the globe – is a vast world. And yet, sometimes we discover hidden connections that make it seem oh so tiny.

Much like that Disneyland theme ride says: It’s a small world after all.

When the Nationals announced Blake Butera as their eighth manager last week, very few people (if any) in local circles knew much about the 33-year-old former senior director of player development with the Rays.

In fact, even the guy who hired him, new Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, had only heard about Butera without ever meeting him prior to the interview process, though he did scout Butera as a draft prospect coming out of Boston College in 2015.

“We didn't know each other personally,” Toboni explained Tuesday during a Zoom call with reporters to discuss his first major hire. “I heard a lot about him, actually, even though I'm not much older than him (35), I scouted him when he was at Boston College. We just have a lot of mutual connections where I'm actually surprised that I had never met him prior to this process kicking off. So many mutual connections. I can't remember exactly the first time I really heard about him, but there had been a number of people over the years that had told me about Blake. I really went into this process having an understanding of what I thought it was going to be like, but didn't honestly know until I really hopped into it. I'm really fortunate that we did reach out to interview him because he blew me away throughout the process.”

We noted earlier this week how the Nationals have cleared a bunch of spots on their 40-man roster, losing several players to other clubs via waiver claims while outrighting several more to Triple-A Rochester, some of those players electing to become free agents in the process.

All of those moves leave the team with only 34 current players on the 40-man roster heading into the offseason, which means new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni has a lot of work to do to assemble his 2026 major league roster.

Toboni and his staff also have a lot of work to do to assemble their minor league rosters, which have already seen a host of slots open up following the recent departures of players.

A whopping 32 minor leaguers officially became free agents Friday, the date when all minor league players with enough professional service time have the right to leave their organizations. The Nationals aren’t the only club to experience a significant exodus, but that number is pretty staggering nonetheless.

Most of the names aren’t recognizable to anyone but the most hardcore of prospect hounds, but there are several notable ones sprinkled in there who played this season at Triple-A: Joan Adon, Juan Yepez, Nick Schnell, Jackson Cluff, C.J. Stubbs and Chase Solesky.

Good morning to everyone out there in NatsTown. Hope you aren't suffering too much from baseball withdrawal after one of the best postseasons, start to finish, in recent years and an absolutely fantastic World Series we'll be talking about forever.

It's time for the offseason now, and boy is there a lot for the Nationals to do. They've already made two of the most important hirings in club history: Paul Toboni as president of baseball operations and Blake Butera as manager. There's no way of knowing yet how either man is going to do in the short or long term, but it's safe to say the organization is entering a completely new era.

Let's take some time this morning to address what has already happened and what may still happen before pitchers and catchers report to West Palm Beach. As always, please submit your questions in the comments section below, then I'll do my best to answer as many of them as possible over the course of the morning. (Fair warning: There are probably going to be some questions I honestly don't have answers for at this point, but I'll try my best.) ...

The Nationals continued to remake their 40-man roster this afternoon with a series of transactions that included the departures of pitchers Zach Brzykcy and Ryan Loutos, the demotion of infielder Trey Lipscomb and the official activation of Josiah Gray, DJ Herz, Drew Millas and Trevor Williams off the injured list.

Both Brzykcy and Loutos were claimed off outright waivers, Brzykcy by the Marlins and Loutos by the Mariners. Lipscomb, meanwhile, cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Rochester, coming off the 40-man roster in the process.

The transactions were the latest in a string of moves by new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and his front office to reset the Nats’ 40-man roster heading into the offseason. They’ve managed to clear a good amount of space for future additions, with six openings now available for their use, and the potential for even more in the coming weeks.

Brzykcy briefly looked like an organizational success story, an undrafted reliever out of Virginia Tech who had the potential to become a high-leverage arm in the big leagues. But the 26-year-old was beset by injuries, and once healthy couldn’t sustain any success in the majors. In 32 games over the last two seasons, he went 0-1 with a 10.05 ERA and 1.814 WHIP, striking out an impressive 9.4 batters per nine innings but doomed by a high walk rate (4.7 per nine innings) and home run rate (2.3 per nine innings). He'll now get a shot to realize his potential in Miami.

Loutos, 26, was a midseason acquisition by former general manager Mike Rizzo, claimed off waivers from the Dodgers. The right-hander struggled in 10 appearances, going 1-0 with a 12.00 ERA and 2.444 WHIP, with the same number of walks as strikeouts (six) and three homers surrendered in only nine innings. Originally with the Cardinals, he’ll try to resurrect his career in Seattle.

The Nationals have announced the following roster moves:

-Trey Lipscomb cleared outright waivers, and he has been assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester.

-The Seattle Mariners claimed Ryan Loutos off of outright waivers.

-Reinstated Josiah Gray, DJ Herz, Drew Millas, and Trevor Williams from the 60-Day Injured List.

-The Miami Marlins claimed Zach Brzykcy off of outright waivers.

For generations, the division between a franchise’s front office and the manager’s office was clear-cut. The general manager’s job was to assemble the team’s roster. And the manager’s job was to use that roster as he saw fit.

That’s the way the Nationals operated under Mike Rizzo, who always insisted he let his managers make out their own lineup cards and decide on their own when to pull a starting pitcher and who to use out of the bullpen. That doesn’t mean Rizzo didn’t have opinions. Strong ones. Nearly every night during his 17-year tenure, he went into the manager’s office postgame and discussed all aspects of the just-completed game, often raising his voice about any decisions he didn’t exactly agree with.

But Rizzo never ordered his managers to fill out a lineup card a certain way. When Davey Martinez decided to move Kyle Schwarber into the leadoff spot, that was his own decision. When Dusty Baker decided to keep a slumping Jayson Werth in the 2-spot for Game 5 of the 2017 National League Division Series against the Cubs instead of starting Howie Kendrick in his place, that was his own decision. And when Matt Williams decided to pull Jordan Zimmermann in favor of Drew Storen with two outs in the ninth, a runner on first and the Nats leading the Giants 1-0 in Game 2 of the 2014 NLDS … well, that was solely his own decision.

That’s just the way it was always done. It’s not, however, necessarily the way it’s always done anymore.

Over the last decade-plus, more and more front offices have been dictating the usage of certain players to their managers. Smart executives well-versed in analytics create optimized lineups, mandates about starting pitchers only facing opposing hitters twice per game and specific situations that should fall upon specific relievers. And in some cases, these are some of the most successful teams in baseball: The Dodgers and Yankees, in particular, are among the organizations believed to operate this way.

Craig Albernaz brought his three children on the honeymoon phase of his hiring as Orioles manager.

The family posed for photos this week on the Camden Yards field, with sons CJ and Norman and 2-year-old daughter Gigi wearing their nicest clothes and batting helmets.

“I’ve got an eagle right here,” Gigi said, pointing at the bird.

Albernaz gently corrected her.

“That’s an Oriole,” he said.

While the Nationals continue to make plans for new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni to formally introduce new manager Blake Butera, we now know how the two young heads will begin their journey together in the spring.

The Nats, in conjunction with Major League Baseball, announced their 2026 spring training schedule, during which we’ll get the first game action of the first team Toboni assembles and Butera puts through his first big league camp.

Grapefruit League play for the Nats will open on Saturday, Feb. 21 with a split squad traveling to Jupiter, Fla., to face the Cardinals while another group stays back in West Palm Beach, Fla., to open the CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches schedule with their co-tenant Astros.

The Nats will then welcome a rare cross-state trip from the National League East rival Phillies on Monday, Feb. 23 before making their own trip to Florida’s Gulf Coast to face the Yankees and Phillies on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 25-26. The Nats welcome the Yankees to West Palm on Saturday, March 7.

Another fun wrinkle in next year’s spring calendar is an exhibition game against Team Venezuela in West Palm on Wednesday, March 4 ahead of the World Baseball Classic.

Blake Butera has officially been the Nationals’ new manager for five days. But we won’t hear from the 33-year-old skipper for a couple of weeks while he and his wife, Caroline Margolis, get settled after welcoming their first child, Blair Margaux Butera, literally hours after he signed his new contract.

Thankfully, new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni took questions from members of the local media over a Zoom call yesterday to give his perspective of his first major hire and what ultimately made Butera his choice.

“I think it just starts with the person that Blake is,” Toboni said. “I think he just very much aligns with the values that we hold sacred as an organization. And then, I think Blake's leadership skills really jumped out to us from the get-go. And so I think those two things, in conjunction with each other, were two of the main driving factors. And then also, he's got a pretty unique set of experiences that didn't necessarily lead us to making the decision in isolation, but I think were very beneficial as we considered Blake's candidacy relative to the other candidates.”

That “unique set of experiences” Butera has includes serving as the Rays' senior director of player development over the past two seasons following a successful run as a minor league coach and manager in one of the best farm systems in baseball.

Not many people make the jump from a front office role in player development to first-time major league manager, but Butera now has. Given the Nats’ young group of players (Trevor Williams is the only player on the 40-man roster who is older than the new skipper and only by 3 ½ months) and need to continue developing players at the major league level, was experience in player development something Toboni was searching for in this hiring process?

Though he didn’t literally know Blake Butera before, Paul Toboni felt like he already knew all about the young man he just hired to be Nationals manager, long before either was employed by the franchise.

During Toboni’s 10 years working in the Red Sox front office, Butera’s name came up a number of times. They had overlapping circles of baseball friends. They came from similar backgrounds. Toboni even vaguely remembers scouting Butera when the latter played at Boston College, despite the fact they’re only separated by two years in age.

So when it came time to assemble a list of candidates for the Nats’ open managerial position, Toboni knew he wanted to meet with Butera. And once they did meet on multiple occasions, the 35-year-old president of baseball operations jumped at the opportunity to hire the 33-year-old rookie skipper.

“I really went into this process having an understanding of what I thought it was going to be like, but didn’t honestly know until I really hopped into it,” Toboni said today during a video conference with reporters. “I’m really fortunate that we did reach out to interview him, because he blew me away throughout the process.”

Butera, who worked for the Rays as a minor league manager and front office executive, was hired by the Nationals last week. He won’t be formally introduced for a couple more weeks, because he and his wife just welcomed their first child into the family on the same day he signed his contract.

The Nationals’ focus since the season ended five weeks ago has been fixed on the remaking of the front office and now the manager’s office as well. At some point, though, Paul Toboni will need to start addressing the roster of players he has inherited.

The new president of baseball operations has actually made a few transactions in the last week, letting several players go via the outright waivers process in order to clear up space on the 40-man roster. That roster now has 37 players on it with the activation of those who ended the year on the 60-day injured list. So there’s already room to add three players, whether from the outside or from within in the form of prospects who need to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft.

But there’s plenty more that needs to be done, and there are plenty more current players who could be removed in the days and weeks ahead to allow for even more additions.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the state of the organizational depth chart as the offseason commences, getting a sense of what’s already in place and what needs to be addressed. We’ll go position-by-position, with players on the 40-man roster listed first and then some minor leaguers who aren’t listed next (with an asterisk next to their names) …

CATCHER
Keibert Ruiz
Riley Adams
Drew Millas
Caleb Lomavita*
Brady Lindsly*
Maxwell Romero Jr.*
Kevin Bazzell*

The 2025 Major League Baseball season ended early Sunday morning, in just about as dramatic fashion as possible. Whether you were happy, upset or indifferent to the result, you have to admit Game 7 of the World Series was an all-timer.

Now, as the Dodgers prepare for another victory parade and the Blue Jays come to grips with as narrow a defeat as it gets, the rest of the baseball world enters the offseason. And around here, there’s a lot to do.

It’s already been plenty busy for the Nationals, who named Paul Toboni their new president of baseball operations one month ago and named Blake Butera their new manager four days ago. In between, Toboni made a number of changes to the front office. But there’s still so much more to do, and that’s before we even get to the roster.

There are plenty more openings to fill in the front office, and though Toboni so far has brought in several execs who previously worked alongside him in Boston, he’s also going to need to look outside his comfort zone as he assembles the rest of the baseball operations department. Perhaps next week’s GM Meetings in Las Vegas will provide an opportunity for him to meet with candidates in person.

Butera, meanwhile, needs a coaching staff. The Nationals aren’t holding a press conference to formally introduce the 33-year-old for a couple more weeks because his wife just so happened to give birth to the couple’s first child Thursday, the same day he signed his contract. The club will give him and his growing family time to get settled before flying him up to D.C. for his public unveiling, but in the meantime he needs to start figuring out who is going to work alongside him in the dugout.

PLAYER REVIEW: TREVOR WILLIAMS

Age on Opening Day 2026: 33

How acquired: Signed as free agent, December 2024

MLB service time: 9 years, 27 days

2025 salary: $7 million

PLAYER REVIEW: PJ POULIN

Age on Opening Day 2026: 29

How acquired: Claimed off waivers from Tigers, August 2025

MLB service time: 55 days

2025 salary: $760,000

Once the initial shock of Thursday’s news – They hired who? He’s how old? He’s never played or coached above what level? – wore off, the case for the Nationals’ hiring of Blake Butera as their new manager crystalized.

Yeah, he’s only 33 years old, but he’s already got an impressive background as a highly successful minor league manager and senior director of player development for the Rays. He and new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni appear to share many baseball philosophies, from analytics to helping turn young players into good big league players. He was viewed within the industry as a future star, so why not snag him now before his profile grew and another franchise claimed him instead?

"I've always believed that you win with people, and from our very first conversation, it was clear that Blake is the right person and the right leader for this role," Toboni in officially announcing the hiring this morning. "Blake comes into this position with experience in a variety of roles in player development, including as a successful manager, making him uniquely qualified to get the most out of the players in the clubhouse and help us reach the next level. He possesses a strong baseball acumen and has a reputation for building strong relationships with players and staff, making him a great fit for us in Washington, D.C."

There are a number of reasons Butera makes sense for the Nationals right now. Which doesn’t make his hiring any less of a gamble for Toboni and the Lerner family.

Let’s be clear: This is a huge gamble. He’s about to become the youngest manager in Major League Baseball since 1972. And it’s not like he’s a well-known former big league player who was given a managerial job with little experience like David Ross, Stephen Vogt or Kurt Suzuki. Nor does he make up for his lack of professional experience with a track record as head coach of an elite college program like Tony Vitello.

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.

The Washington Nationals officially named Blake Butera the eighth manager in team history on Friday. Today’s announcement was made by Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni.

“I’ve always believed that you win with people, and from our very first conversation, it was clear that Blake is the right person and the right leader for this role,” said Toboni. “Blake comes into this position with experience in a variety of roles in player development, including as a successful manager, making him uniquely qualified to get the most out of the players in the clubhouse and help us reach the next level. He possesses a strong baseball acumen and has a reputation for building strong relationships with players and staff, making him a great fit for us in Washington, D.C. We’re so excited to welcome him to the Nationals family.”

Butera, 33, joins the Nationals after spending the previous two seasons as the senior director of player development for the Tampa Bay Rays, one of the most well-respected player development operations in Major League Baseball. He served as the Rays’ Minor League field coordinator in 2023 following four seasons (2018-22) as a manager in their Minor League system. At Single-A Charleston, Butera was named Carolina League Manager of the Year in 2021 and 2022, won the Carolina League championship both seasons, and the 2022 club was named Minor League Team of the Year by Baseball America. In four seasons, Butera’s clubs went 258-144 (.642) and finished in first place each year.

“I am incredibly honored to be named the manager of the Washington Nationals,” said Butera. “I’d like to thank the Lerner, Cohen and Tanenbaum families, as well as Paul Toboni, for the opportunity and for the trust they are placing in me. This franchise has a proud history, a passionate fanbase and a standard of excellence that I deeply respect. My family and I are fortunate to be part of it. I’m excited to get to work alongside our players, coaches and staff to build something special – a team that is rooted in trust, connection and competitiveness. We want to represent this city and our fans in a way they can be proud of, and we’re ready to get started.” 

Butera began his coaching career with the Rays organization in 2017 as the bench coach for Single-A Hudson Valley and was promoted to manager in 2018, becoming the youngest manager in all of Minor League Baseball at the age of 25. Butera led Hudson Valley to Postseason berths in 2018 and 2019, leading the New York-Penn League in wins both seasons.

The Nationals are working to finalize a deal to name 33-year-old Blake Butera as their next manager, an out-of-the-box hiring of someone who never played or coached above Single-A but was highly regarded for his work leading the Rays’ much-touted player development system.

The expected hiring of Butera, which was confirmed by a source familiar with the decision, would make him Major League Baseball’s youngest manager since 1972, not to mention thrust a previously little-known figure in the sport into a high-profile job in the nation’s capital.

Unconventional as the move – which was first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan – may sound, Butera appears to align well with new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni. Well-versed in analytics and player development, Butera shares many of the qualities that made Toboni, 35, the choice of Nationals ownership to reshape the organization after 17 years under former general manager Mike Rizzo.

Butera has been employed by the Rays in one capacity or another since 2015, when the former infielder was selected in the 35th round of the MLB Draft out of Boston College. The Louisiana native played only two seasons of professional ball, never advancing beyond the short-season Single-A level, but he immediately went into coaching upon his retirement and spent the next decade working in a variety of roles for Tampa Bay.

By 2018, at the age of 25, Butera was named manager of the Hudson Valley Renegades and led that short-season Single-A club to the first of two consecutive first-place finishes in the New York-Penn League. He was promoted to manager of the low Single-A Charleston River Dogs in 2021 and led that team to back-to-back Carolina League titles, with an 88-44 record in 2022.

PLAYER REVIEW: CLAYTON BEETER

Age on Opening Day 2026: 27

How acquired: Traded with Browm Martinez from Yankees for Amed Rosario, July 2025

MLB service time: 129 days

2025 salary: $763,325

The Nationals began the process of trimming down their 40-man roster for the start of the offseason this evening, announcing four players cleared outright waivers in Paul Toboni’s first official transactions since being named president of baseball operations.

Right-handers Eduardo Salazar and Mason Thompson, left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara and catcher CJ Stubbs were dropped from the 40-man roster, with Ogasawara and Stubbs assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester. Salazar and Thompson refused their outright assignments and instead declared for free agency, leaving the organization in the process.

All major league clubs must activate players who ended the season on the injured list following the World Series, and typically that requires some other maneuvering to make sure they do not exceed the 40-man roster limit for the offseason. Today’s moves leave the Nationals with 36 active players, plus four more under club control who ended the year on the 60-day IL: Josiah Gray, DJ Herz, Drew Millas and Trevor Williams. (Derek Law also was on the 60-day IL, but he’s set to become a free agent after the World Series and will automatically come off the roster.)

Thompson also ended the season on the IL with right biceps tendinitis, a frustrating conclusion to a frustrating season for the 27-year-old reliever, who in his return from his second Tommy John surgery produced an 11.81 ERA and 2.625 WHIP in 14 big league appearances. Originally acquired from the Padres for Daniel Hudson in one of former general manager Mike Rizzo’s flurry of 2021 trade deadline deals, Thompson ends his Nationals tenure with a 7-9 record, 5.27 ERA and 1.640 WHIP in 116 games.

Salazar, a waiver claim from the Mariners during the 2024 season, showed initial promise with a 2.96 ERA in 25 appearances but struggled this season to the tune of an 8.38 ERA in 30 games while bouncing back and forth between D.C. and Rochester.