List of Washington Nationals managers


The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball franchise that has been based in Washington, D.C., since. They are members of the National League East Division in Major League Baseball. The team began playing in as an expansion team in Montreal, Quebec, then known as the Montreal Expos. There have been 18 different managers in the franchise's history. The team has played its home games at the Nationals Park since 2008. The Nationals are owned by Mark Lerner, with Ani Kilambi as their general manager.
The Expos' first manager was Gene Mauch, who managed for six seasons. Felipe Alou is the franchise's all-time leader in regular season games managed and regular season game wins. Jim Fanning is the only Expos manager to have gone into the post-season. Buck Rodgers and Alou are the only managers to have won the NL Manager of the Year Award with the Expos, in and respectively. Karl Kuehl, Jim Fanning, and Tom Runnells all spent their entire MLB managing careers with the Expos/Nationals.
Frank Robinson managed the team during its last three seasons in Montreal and its first two seasons in Washington, after which the Nationals did not renew his contract. Manny Acta took over in, but was fired during the season. Jim Riggleman, the bench coach, was named interim manager to replace Acta, and was promoted to the position full-time for the season. After Riggleman resigned during the season and John McLaren ran the team for three games as an interim manager, the team hired veteran manager Davey Johnson, who had previously served as an advisor to Mike Rizzo. Johnson led the team to the National League East title and the franchise's first playoff berth since moving to Washington and was 2012's NL Manager of the Year, but the team did not advance past the National League Division Series. Johnson retired after the season.
Matt Williams took over in, leading the team to another National League East title that season, and was 2014 NL Manager of the Year, but the team did not advance past the 2014 NLDS, and Williams was fired after an unsuccessful second year in. Dusty Baker managed the team in and, leading Washington to consecutive National League East titles, but the team did not advance beyond the NLDS in either season, losing in both the 2016 and 2017 NLDS, and Baker's contract was not renewed after the 2017 season.
The Nationals hired Dave Martinez in October 2017 to take the helm in. In, he led the team from a wild-card berth to the franchise's first World Series appearance, which the Nationals won, the first World Series championship for the franchise as well as the first for a Washington, D.C.-based MLB team since 1924. Six straight losing seasons followed, however, and the Nationals fired Martinez during the season; his 500 victories are the most for a Nationals manager since the team moved to Washington in 2005. His bench coach, Miguel Cairo, served as the Nationals' interim manager for the rest of the 2025 season, but the team did not hire him as the new manager after the season. On October 31, 2025, the Nationals announced that they had hired Blake Butera as their next manager.

Managers

Notes: Managers from 1969 through 2004 are of the Montreal Expos; those from 2005 to the present are of the Washington Nationals. Statistics are correct as of the end of the 2025 Major League Baseball season.
#ImageNameTermGMWLWin%PGMPWPLNotesReference
–1126499627.443
*1284385.336
341222.353
–727380347.523
*–18910287.540Won 1981 NLDS, first postseason series win in franchise history
–293146147.497
—*301416.467
–1019520499.510 NL Manager of the Year
*–1496881.456
–1408691717.491 NL Manager of the Year
101094762.431
11–810385425.475The Expos' last manager and the Nationals' first manager
12–410158252.385
13–312140172.449
14321.667Interim manager
15–407224183.550Won NL East 2012; NL Manager of the Year
16*–324179145Won NL East 2014; NL Manager of the Year
17–324192132Won NL East 2016, 2017
18*–1122500622Won and ; franchise's first World Series appearance; first postseason series wins and first World Series championship for a Washington, D.C.-based MLB team since 1924
19722943Interim manager
19–present