MILWAUKEE — The Washington Nationals sign his paychecks now, but Blake Butera couldn’t help but smile at the final out of the ALCS.
For a decade, Butera was a Tampa Bay Ray. He was drafted by the organization in 2015, a 35th-rounder, the 1,048th pick. When it became clear in spring training 2017 that playing big-league ball wasn’t in the 5-foot-9, 175-pound infielder’s future, the Rays asked Butera to coach. He was released and hired on the same day, in the same meeting.
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Still in his mid-20s, Butera climbed the organizational ladder, first as a minor-league skipper in towns such as Fishkill,
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