What I’m seeing at the Nationals’ home opener: ‘All kinds of liquid,’ early pregame work

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This team is remarkably different compared to last season. That means, even in the four hours before the start of the game, there were plenty of little details I noticed that seem to explain their culture, character and processes in the first season under manager Blake Butera and president of baseball operations Paul Toboni. Players arrived at Nationals Park on Friday morning to a new shirt awaiting each of them on their folding chairs. By 9:10 a.m., when reporters were allowed into the home clubhouse, most of the players had put the shirts on. Really, they couldn’t help themselves. They wanted to playfully rib their first-year manager. On the front of the dark navy shirts was a cartoon version of Butera in a shopping cart. He was featured with sunglasses and a beer in his right hand. Strewn along the bottom of the image were cans of beer and shaving cream — a representation of the celebration after their Opening Day win over the Chicago Cubs. Over the top, in cartoon-ish gray letters, it said “BLAKE BUTERA.” On the bottom, it said, “All kinds of stuff.” That was a hint towards the ever-important back of the shirts. It’s the reason they were printed in the first place: Butera’s quote to reporters about the postgame welcome he received on Opening Day. “I got crushed. … They grabbed me and next thing you know, there was a lot of liquids all over me in the shower. All kinds of stuff. Shaving cream, beer, you name it.” Blake Butera got quite the celebration after his first wins. In his words? “I got crushed. … They grabbed me and next thing you know, there was a lot of liquids all over me in the shower. All kinds of stuff. Shaving cream, beer, you name it.” — Spencer Nusbaum (@spencernusbaum_) March 26, 2026 These are common tests for new managers, what they can take and receive. So far, Butera has more than rolled with the punches. It’s early, but with a 3-3 record entering the home opener, there is a fresh feel to the clubhouse. In spite of some truly intrepid reporting, none of the players who were around in the morning were quite sure who made the shirts. But almost everyone was wearing one before Friday’s game. The Nationals have had to change a lot from last season. In some areas, there has been rapid improvement — in the field, there has not been. Luis Garcia Jr. is on the early end of the first base learning curve. There have been impressive grabs, but no one has been flawless. As such, at 9 a.m. — four hours before first pitch — they had their infielders roaming out in the field, getting dirt on their cleats, taking grounders. “It’s something we’ve talked about from the jump, how important defense is to me, how important it is to our whole group,” Butera said. “The fact that we have guys out there at 9 a.m. before a 1 o’clock game, working on their defense hopefully shows them — and also anybody that’s watching — that it is important to us. We’re going to continue to work on those things.” It was listed as optional on their schedule in the clubhouse. But all of the infielders were out there. “The coaching staff has been exceptionally organized in terms of getting players the work that they need,” Toboni said before the game. “We did it today. That’s not something we’re going to do every day, but it’s not because, like, we don’t want it to work. To me, some of the best coaching staffs are incredibly well organized, and they’re setting up late reports on days that we should have late reports. But they’re not working for three hours to run these guys into the ground. If we’re going to work for 30 minutes, let’s just make sure the work is really high quality and really transfers.” The Nationals have always had the televisions on in their clubhouse before the game. Usually, it’s on MLB Network or ESPN. Before Friday’s game, they had a rotating set of slides and videos of their “visual scoreboard,” or the items they’re trying to attack as a pitching staff. They showed, for instance, the team leaders of “free throw percentage,” which is their representation of who throws the most early-count strikes. Those who performed in that facet better than MLB average were in green; those who had not were in red. After that slide passed to the next, about 15 seconds later, there was a montage of three or four times from the past week that someone on the team threw an early-count strike. On the bottom, in big lettering, they put something in bold. For free throw percentage: MAKE YOUR FREE THROWS For battle count win percentage: BATTLE EACH PITCH. For kill percentage: KILL EM Just in case they needed another reminder of how important these items were — and how they fared in each category — printouts were also in their lockers before the game. “I did something very, very similar towards the end of my time in St. Louis … They just never really printed them out and put them on our chairs as much as they do here,” reliever Andre Granillo said. “Everybody looks at ERA and kind of says, like, ‘Oh, that’s like a gauge of how good he is, or how good he’s doing.’ If I could see my paper and it’s all green, but my numbers aren’t reflecting green, I know that I don’t really need to change anything.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Spencer Nusbaum is a Staff Writer for The Athletic covering the Washington Nationals. Before joining The Athletic, he spent two years covering the Nationals for The Washington Post. He is a graduate of American University. Follow Spencer on Twitter @spencernusbaum_