Good on Blake Butera, the Washington Nationals new manager, for speaking in specifics. Few do that. Most managers like to dance around with broad messages because they don’t want to be held accountable for their words.

Both Butera and President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni constantly talk about accountability. Then Butera took a page from Joe Maddon‘s playbook on what Maddon called “Respect-90” and then to an extreme, he had it painted on the Cubs’ first baseline 10 years ago in Spring Training. We were saying the same on social media — and then hours later, Butera said our same words, “Run A Hard-90” in a video that was published the next day on the 11th Inning Podcast.

Now Butera should be held accountable if his players do not run a Hard-90. For those who do not know the term, it is 90 feet from home plate to first base. A Hard-90 means to run with effort to first base — even on a routine play. This was a problem with a few players in 2025, and most notably — and not to pick on one player, but James Wood didn’t run hard in the second half of the 2025 season to first base in too many situations. And we know that Wood has the ability to run hard as we saw on his call-up day. Maybe Wood was hurting — but if you cannot run a Hard-90 then maybe you should not be playing.

A lack of discipline in fundamentals and hustle as well as not executing on the little things became a daily constant of former manager Dave Martinez‘s teams the past few years. Martinez talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk enough. He had his daily mantra of “Do the little things” and “Go 1-0 today” but there was a lack of follow-through and mistakes were repeated over and over. They became empty words, and after a while like nails on a chalkboard.

You almost know that we will be debating this Hard-90 issue the first time in 2026 that we don’t see a Nats player running hard to first base, and then waiting to see if Butera benches the player. Again, he put it out there. Now he better be the enforcer. That is accountability. You have to follow-through on Butera’s words, “… hold each other to a standard every single day.”

Personally, I love what Butera has said so far. Some teams never have hustle issues. Martinez’s teams had this issue from the start of his employment in 2018 when Bryce Harper not only dogged it to first base on the regular — but Harper also did the same in not hustling after balls in the outfield. It was a clear and present danger at the time. He cost his pitchers and his team often in his “walk” season. And walk away is what Harper did. And Martinez allowed it to happen.

Karma is a b#### because it cost Harper in free agency. Other teams noticed and it cost him in his defensive metrics and WAR (3.2). He probably cost himself some infield singles too. Harper’s UZR in 2018 was a -14.4, the worst of his career by over 300%. Again, this was on Martinez for allowing it. Sometimes, like Harper’s defense, you could objectively measure it. This wasn’t a matter of imagining it. This was a huge problem.

It isn’t just dogging it to first base as we showed that you can dog it on defense too. Butera says that he has told his players what his expectations are as he said he has called and spoken to over 20 players already.

Implementing the Four Cs of the accountability diamond are — Communication, clarity, Common purpose, Consequences — and that will unlock your team’s potential and foster a culture of accountability. These simple principles set the foundation for accountability, leading to higher productivity and increased success.

This is the honeymoon period. How many people give their vows and then stray off of them quickly? Everything is great today as we are smitten by these charismatic young men as Butera and TBone have both talked the talk. It’s refreshing to hear about accountability and hustle. And here’s a promise, I will hold you accountable here if you don’t walk the walk.