Making the Nationals fun again would be a good start for Butera

OPINION:

One of Blake Butera’s bosses when he was the manager of the Class A Charleston River Dogs had the title of “director of fun.”

Bill Murray. Yes, that Bill Murray, one of the co-owners of the minor league club.

“He is so unapologetically himself, and that’s what makes it so fun,” said Butera, introduced Monday as the new manager of the Washington Nationals. “Talk about not faking it and being yourself, what you see on TV, that’s Bill Murray. He talked about baseball all the time. He loves it.”

Another one of his bosses was Mike Veeck, the son of legendary owner and promoter Bill Veeck and whose official philosophy is “Fun Is Good.”

There’s no “director of fun” among his new Washington Nationals bosses. I think it’s reasonable to say that even in the best of times, “fun” has never been the official philosophy of the Lerner family.

When Butera was leading the River Dogs to league championships in 2021 and 2022 and he was winning league manager of the year honors, the club was hosting promotions like “Toilet Paper Night” and “Used Car Salesman Appreciation Day.”

Washington is not Charleston.

Learning the differences will not be fun for Butera. Then again, it will all be a learning experience for the 33-year-old Louisiana native who has limited major league experience.

He will be the youngest manager in baseball since 33-year-old Frank Quicili was hired by the Minnesota Twins in 1972 (Frank Quicili, like Washington Senators shortstop Eddie Brinkman, was in every other pack of Topps baseball cards growing up).

This is nothing new to Washington baseball. The 1924 Senators hired 27-year-old Bucky Harris to be their player-manager, and he led them to a World Series championship. That team had three future Hall of Famers on the roster.

Butera’s roster — which resulted in a 66-win season this year — won’t be as stacked. But he said he is impressed with the players he is inheriting.

Asked by reporters following his press conference what excited him about the roster, Butera said, “The young talent. It’s all over the place.”

Funny, I thought the narrative was that the Nationals were devoid of young talent?

If Butera is something special, it is hidden within that small frame — he is listed a 5-foot-9, the same size as Bucky Harris.

Butera even appears to get smaller the closer you get to him.

Yet there was something there that made him a rising star in the game, something that went beyond his limited but successful managing experience — a 258-144 record over four minor league seasons, plus his time in the Tampa Bay Rays organization that led him to be named senior director of player development. The Rays are an organization that takes player development seriously.

Paul Toboni, the recently hired Nationals president of baseball operations, saw something special. They were not childhood buddies or teammates somewhere along the way. They had never met before Toboni picked Butera out to talk about the Nationals job — the most important hire Toboni will make.

“I think first and foremost, with every new manager, you just don’t know until they’re given the opportunity how they’re going to respond to the challenge, right?” Toboni, who is just two years older than Butera, told reporters shortly after the announcement of the hiring. “Having said that, I feel actually very good about betting on Blake in this position, and I think it’s so much that just circles back to the person he is and the leader that he is.”

Both Toboni, who was a star in the Boston Red Sox organization, rising to assistant general manager, and Butera, who appeared to be a manager-in-waiting for someone in the near future, could be considered hiring coups for the Lerners, who, after six straight losing seasons and firing general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez midseason, had a well-earned damaged reputation in the industry.

I get why the family made both these hires — particularly Butera, whose paycheck likely fits the Lerners’ penny-pinching ways.

Asked about the financial commitment from the owners, Toboni has repeatedly said he feels “supported” in his job.

There has been an assumption that the Lerners made Toboni a pledge of increasing their payroll spending, which has been among the lowest in baseball.

But if that’s the case, why wouldn’t they have done the same for Rizzo, who repeatedly asked for more financial support, only to be turned away despite Mark Lerner’s hollow public declarations of the family’s willingness to spend? I mean, they liked Rizzo, who had been with them for nearly 20 years.

Why change? Shame? Like fun, I don’t think that’s been high on the Lerners’ list.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.