{"id":108993,"date":"2025-10-30T19:45:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=108993"},"modified":"2025-10-30T19:45:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:45:32","slug":"washington-nationals-hire-33-year-old-blake-butera-new-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/10\/30\/washington-nationals-hire-33-year-old-blake-butera-new-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Nationals Hire 33-Year-Old as New Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a surprising move, the Washington Nationals are hiring 33-year-old Blake Butera to be their new manager for the 2026 season, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_108999\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-108999\" style=\"width: 564px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-108999\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/USATSI_12892379_168400885_lowres-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"564\" height=\"705\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/USATSI_12892379_168400885_lowres-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/USATSI_12892379_168400885_lowres-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/USATSI_12892379_168400885_lowres-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/USATSI_12892379_168400885_lowres-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/USATSI_12892379_168400885_lowres-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/USATSI_12892379_168400885_lowres.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 564px) 100vw, 564px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-108999\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hudson Valley Renegades manager, Blake Butera at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls on June 12, 2019. Credit: \u00a9 Patrick Oehler\/Poughkeepsie Journal<\/p>\n<p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Report: Nationals to Hire Blake Butera as New Manager<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BREAKING: The Washington Nationals are finalizing a deal to hire Blake Butera as manager, sources tell ESPN. Butera, 33, will be the youngest manager in MLB in more than 50 years. In four seasons as a minor league manager in the Rays organization, his teams had a 258-144 record.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1983901016857936204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"90\" data-end=\"358\">This marks the second unexpected managerial hire this cycle, following the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/10\/22\/report-giants-hire-new-skipper\/\" target=\"_self\">San Francisco Giants<\/a>\u2019 decision to go off the traditional path by bringing on University of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello as their new skipper. Teams choosing leaders they truly believe in sends a powerful message \u2014 it shows players the front office believes in its vision and its people.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"490\" data-end=\"650\">Butera earned widespread respect as a minor league manager in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, guiding his clubs to a combined 258-144 record over four seasons.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"652\" data-end=\"1037\">Butera was born on August 7, 1992, in Metairie, Louisiana. He entered pro ball when the Rays drafted him in the 35th round in 2015 out of Boston College. After spending parts of two seasons as a minor league infielder, he shifted into coaching and managing. He joined the Rays\u2019 system as a coach in 2017. He then became the organization\u2019s Senior Director of Player Development by 2023. Butera, 33, will become the youngest MLB manager since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/quilifr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Frank Quilici<\/a>, who took over the Minnesota Twins in 1972 at the same age. Coincidentally, the Twins also <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/10\/29\/twins-hire-derek-shelton-next-manager\/\" target=\"_self\">filled their managerial vacancy<\/a> this week, hiring former Pittsburgh Pirates manager <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/sheltde99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derek Shelton<\/a>, who formerly served as a coach for Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1039\" data-end=\"1243\">His rapid rise through the developmental ranks showed how much faith the Rays placed in him to shape young talent. Now, the Nationals are counting on that expertise to translate to the major-league stage.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1039\" data-end=\"1243\">Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 Patrick Oehler\/Poughkeepsie Journal\/USA TODAY Network \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a surprising move, the Washington Nationals are hiring 33-year-old Blake Butera to be their new manager for the 2026 season, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. Report: Nationals to Hire Blake Butera as New Manager BREAKING: The Washington Nationals are finalizing a deal to hire Blake Butera as manager, sources tell ESPN. Butera, 33, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5663,"featured_media":108998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1071,35],"tags":[29174,3160,29172],"class_list":["post-108993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nationals","category-mlb","category-news","tag-blake-butera","tag-derek-shelton","tag-tony-vitello"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108993"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109000,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108993\/revisions\/109000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}