Nats' new staff diving into work, meeting with players

ORLANDO, Fla. -- In the short time that Nationals manager Blake Butera has assembled his coaching staff, there have already been in-person meetings and introductions around the country and even in the Dominican Republic.

“One thing, as a staff, we’ve talked about is reaching out to players. Form relationships. Start the ball rolling now,” Butera said. “If we have a 12-person staff, it’s a lot of people. But it also shows them how much we care about them, want to get to know them, want to get this thing rolling rather than waiting until day one of Spring Training. Let’s start that now.”

First-time manager Butera, 33, was hired by the Nationals in late October. He has finalized 11 coaching positions, and more could be added. To date, the Nats staff includes bench coach Michael Johns, field coordinator Tyler Smarslok, hitting coach Matt Borgschulte, assistant hitting coach Andrew Aydt, pitching coach Simon Mathews, assistant pitching coach Sean Doolittle, assistant pitching/bullpen coach Dustin Glant, first-base/outfield/baserunning coach Corey Ray, third-base/infield coach Victor Estevez, catching coach/run game coordinator Bobby Wilson and bullpen catcher/development coach Grant Anders.

Of this group, only three coaches are 40 years old or older. Johns, 50, is the most senior.

“The most important thing for us as a group when you're building out a staff [is] we understand that players come from all different walks of life and different backgrounds. We want to make sure we build a staff where each one of our players feel connected,” Butera said.

“With that, I know most of the staff has trended younger. That wasn't on purpose. We weren't trying to get young staff. Someone made a joke like, ‘Did you tell [35-year-old president of baseball operations] Paul [Toboni] when you got hired that the staff has to be under 40 years old? I'm like, ‘You might not believe me, but no.’”

Butera has had lunch with southpaw MacKenzie Gore, whose name has been at the forefront of trade buzz at the Winter Meetings.

When Johns was chatting with James Wood, the slugger told Johns he would be training at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., which happens to be where Johns spends his offseason. They made plans to meet up and work on outfield defense.

“MJ was like, ‘Man, James really wants to be a good outfielder,’” Butera said. “Somebody that young that has had the success he's had offensively with the amount of home runs, the fact they actually want to go work on their pre-pitch and their first step in the outfield in December is pretty cool to see.”

Estevez is managing Los Toros del Este in the Dominican Winter Ball League, where second baseman Luis García Jr. is playing for Los Gigantes del Cibao. Estevez made it a point to do some extra scouting during their game.

“They met up on an off-day,” Butera said. “He saw Luis play the other night and texted me the report from the game. I'm like, ‘You can focus on managing your team.’ [He said], ‘I'm ready to work. Let's go.’”

The coaching staff’s upcoming plans also include Aydt making a trip to visit shortstop CJ Abrams at his offseason training facility. Abrams is also being mentioned as a potential trade candidate.

“CJ is great; we've connected over the phone,” said Butera. “He's working out at one facility and then hitting at Maven [Baseball Lab] in Atlanta. He was like, ‘Hey, come down. Let's meet up. I want you to see where I'm hitting.’ I know their elite hitting guy at Maven, we have that connection … We already had a lot of conversation with CJ, and he wants our help and direction. It's pretty fun.”

Aydt also plans to meet up with outfielder Jacob Young. Butera estimates in-person meetings with somewhere between 15 and 20 players.

“We wanted to make sure the biggest thing is we bring in good people,” Butera said. “Then on top of that, this is a young roster and the common theme from a lot of the players is ‘we have a long ways to go.’ … We want to continue to develop and get better. We want a staff that's going to push us to grow. That's kind of the staff we tried to build out.”