The new manager of the Washington Nationals is a 33-year-old guy whose on-field claim to fame, to date, is back-to-back Carolina League championships.
Blake Butera, a 2015 Boston College alum, is the youngest big-league manager in more than 50 years.
Butera, a 35th-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Rays in 2015, has never played or managed above the High-A level, which still gives him more experience in pro ball than the new San Francisco Giants manager, Tony Vitello, who was hired after a long run as the coach at the University of Tennessee – and Vitello never played pro ball.
Butera is the second wunderkind hiring by the Nats as the organization attempts to jumpstart the long rebuild from the 2019 World Series title.
The organization hired Paul Toboni, 35, the former assistant GM with the Boston Red Sox, to the position of president of baseball operations last month, replacing Mike Rizzo, the architect of the 2010s Nats teams that made five playoff appearances.
Butera was 258-144 in four seasons as a manager at the Low-A and High-A levels, winning the 2021 and 2022 Carolina League titles with the Charleston RiverDogs, the Low-A affiliate of the Rays, before moving to the Rays organization front office, serving a year as an assistant field coordinator before being named the senior director of player development in 2023.
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Chris Graham
