WASHINGTON -- Sean Doolittle’s connection with the Nationals continues.
Doolittle will be a member of newly-hired manager Blake Butera’s 2026 coaching staff, president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said on Monday. Doolittle’s official title will be determined. He was hired as the pitching strategist on former manager Dave Martinez’s staff last January.
“We're really excited about that,” Toboni, who was hired in October, said. “I really liked getting to know him over the course of the past month, or however long it’s been. I think the world of him. Coincidentally, he's got a great relationship with the pitching coach that we hired -- they’re very tight. It ended up just being a really good relationship from the get-go.”
Doolittle already knew Simon Mathews before Mathews was named Nationals pitching coach last week. Mathews, 30, was a member of the Reds' organization for the past four seasons, and he also worked at Push Performance and Driveline Baseball. Doolittle played for the Reds in 2021.
“It actually became an appealing part of Simon signing on here,” Toboni, 35, said. “Those decisions were totally independent of each other, but turned out to be a really nice thing. It speaks to Sean, the type of person he is and how good he is at what he does.”
Doolittle, 39, is a mainstay around the Nationals. An 11-year Major League veteran, he played in Washington, D.C., for parts of five seasons, was a key piece in winning the 2019 World Series and returned to continue pouring into the new wave of hurlers after retirement.
“What stood out right away was when I was talking with all pitchers separately, every time, unsolicited they brought up Sean and just how impactful he’s been on each of their careers and how they were hoping to have him back,” Butera, 33, said. “The positive sentiment around Sean was something right away where I was like, all right I wasn’t even asking for this and to hear that type of feedback.”
It didn’t take long for Butera to see what the Nationals' pitchers had gotten to appreciate about Doolittle. He was an appealing addition to Butera’s staff in his first Major League managerial role.
“Getting to talk to Sean myself, the thing that was most evident to me was just how much he cares about every pitcher on this team,” Butera said. “The amount of information he shared with me, the amount of times he reaches out. He does not care what the role is; he just wants to help these guys get better, which is pretty important and impressive.”
In addition to Doolittle and Mathews, the Nationals also hired Michael Johns as bench coach last week. Johns, 50, comes from the Rays' organization with nearly 20 years of experience.
“I don’t think we really set out to either hire for or not for experience,” Butera said. “What was first and foremost is, we wanted to find people that aligned with our values. We wanted people that would help hold each other accountable, would come in with a tremendous amount of work ethic and make sure they were in this thing for the right reasons. At the end of the day, our job is to help these players get better and create something that’s sustainable for a really long time and successful.”