Nats lock up Ruiz

[Slateman]

Lol, Chapparo is an anchor now?

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Lol, Chapparo is an anchor now?

in this case, the devil you don't know at least has a coin flip chance of being better than the one you do.

[nobleisthyname]

Lol, Chapparo is an anchor now?

Compared to Ruiz?

[imref]

Andrew Flax notes that Millas currently has the highest fWAR among Nats catchers (very small sample size) over this and last season:

Drew Millas: 0.3 (65 PA)
Riley Adams: 0.2 (288 PA)
Keibert Ruiz: -0.6 (938 PA)

[IanRubbish]

Andrew Flax notes that Millas currently has the highest fWAR among Nats catchers (very small sample size) over this and last season:

Drew Millas: 0.3 (65 PA)
Riley Adams: 0.2 (288 PA)
Keibert Ruiz: -0.6 (938 PA)

He should be given a chance to start with Keibert being the backup.  But we know why that won't happen.

[Mattionals]

He should be given a chance to start with Keibert being the backup.  But we know why that won't happen.

Keibert Ruiz from July 1st until today: .261/.285/.464 with 7 doubles and 8 homers. It's not great, but it ain't bad either. He definitely had something else going on when he lost 20 pounds. That doesn't just happen from the flu. I'm not suggesting he should catch every game, but his bat isn't half bad. Dude needs to learn how to take a walk.

[IanRubbish]

Keibert Ruiz from July 1st until today: .261/.285/.464 with 7 doubles and 8 homers. It's not great, but it ain't bad either. He definitely had something else going on when he lost 20 pounds. That doesn't just happen from the flu. I'm not suggesting he should catch every game, but his bat isn't half bad. Dude needs to learn how to take a walk.

You can justify anyone's playing time with partial season stats.  His hard hit rate and walk rate are among the lowest in the league, DH'ing him like Davey did yesterday is absurd.  His defense is particularly miserable, he's got one of the highest pop times in the league with one of the weakest arms and not surprisingly one of the worst throw out rates.   He was coached before the season started to get the ball sooner.  This led to two interference calls in Spring Training and that was the end of that, and now Nats catchers are 29th in throwing out runners.  I'm excited for James Wood and Dylan Crews, but they can't throw out base stealers or stop "play the contract".  This guy is 26 now, and would not be an everyday starting catcher on any other team.  The debate isn't whether he should start, but whether he or Corbin has benefitted more from getting chances they didn't deserve after getting Lerner bucks.

[imref]

Some improvement this year:

Via Andrew Golden:

Blocks above average: -10 (2023) to 3 (2024)
Catcher framing runs: -13 to -1
Pop time: 2.06 to 2.08
Caught stealing above average: -12 to -7

[IanRubbish]

Some improvement this year:

Via Andrew Golden:

Pop Time is 2.09, 2nd worst among 60 qualifying MLB catchers, arm strength near the bottom, as is throw out rate of 10%.  Even Riley Adams is better across these three measures. 

[rbw5t]

So, the summary from the last two posts is that he remains terrible at throwing out runners, but has improved from terrible to adequate in blocking and framing. It seems to me that we could live with terrible throwing/adequate blocking&framing if his hitting justifies it. For a catcher, maybe that’s .720 OPS. .750 would definitely be good enough.  Maybe he can do that if he stays healthy?

[Slateman]

So, the summary from the last two posts is that he remains terrible at throwing out runners, but has improved from terrible to adequate in blocking and framing. It seems to me that we could live with terrible throwing/adequate blocking&framing if his hitting justifies it. For a catcher, maybe that’s .720 OPS. .750 would definitely be good enough.  Maybe he can do that if he stays healthy?

Stolen bases seems pretty irrelevant to offense, at least in the regular season.

But it does show thay with just one offseason worth of work, he gained significant improvement.

[IanRubbish]

Stolen bases seems pretty irrelevant to offense, at least in the regular season.

This team's entire offensive strategy is built around stolen bases, and the defensive stolen base numbers are putrid.

Nats are 26th in defensive caught stealings per game at .17, meanwhile they're also 26th in steals against at .85.  Keibert is 60th of 61 catchers who qualify in Catcher Stealing Runs.  But with that .598 OPS gotta keep playing him.

 

[imref]

Maybe the Ruiz deal is pretty cheap?

Rays sign Danny Jansen to a 1/$8.5M deal: 92 games last year between Toronto and Boston: .205 / .309 /.349
Orioles sign Gary Sanchez, also to a 1/$8.5M deal: 89 games with Milwaukee last year: .220 / .307 /.392

Ruiz will make $5.3M next year, last year he posted .229 / .260 / .359

In terms of framing, according to https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/catcher_framing, Sanchez and Ruiz were both a -1, Jansen a -3

[zimm_da_kid]

Maybe the Ruiz deal is pretty cheap?

Rays sign Danny Jansen to a 1/$8.5M deal: 92 games last year between Toronto and Boston: .205 / .309 /.349
Orioles sign Gary Sanchez, also to a 1/$8.5M deal: 89 games with Milwaukee last year: .220 / .307 /.392

Ruiz will make $5.3M next year, last year he posted .229 / .260 / .359

In terms of framing, according to https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/catcher_framing, Sanchez and Ruiz were both a -1, Jansen a -3

It’s cheap because he was bad.
 Then he got really bad

[Slateman]

The difference is Jansen and Sanchez are backups/platoon options, whereas Ruiz was, allegedly, a franchise catcher.

[varoadking]

The difference is Jansen and Sanchez are backups/platoon options, whereas Ruiz was, allegedly, a franchise catcher.

$8.5MM seems pretty spendy for a backup...

[Slateman]

$8.5MM seems pretty spendy for a backup...

Not on a competitive team.

[Natsinpwc]

Sanchez isn't much of a catcher.  Decent hitter still I suppose. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

There's almost no such thing as a backup catcher on  competitive teams. Most are close to 50/50 splits. Even Rutschman sat quite a bit or DHs for McCann and now will for Sanchez. Begs the question why doesn't Ruiz sit more when he's not as good.

[Smithian]

It's like signing Ruiz early was a smart gamble in case he improved dramatically while also limiting our downside should things go poorly?

[IanRubbish]

It's like signing Ruiz early was a smart gamble in case he improved dramatically while also limiting our downside should things go poorly?

Well, we've got six more seasons of downside, including having him DH with an OBP under .300.  Play-the-contract is not a bad deal when you're the player with the contract.

[HalfSmokes]

Still the only multi year contract on the books

[Slateman]

It's like signing Ruiz early was a smart gamble in case he improved dramatically while also limiting our downside should things go poorly?

It's frustrating for fans. We wanted them to extend Harper,but waited too long. We wanted to extend Turner, but waited too long.

We finally extend a young player and he hasn't performed up to the hopes.

[HalfSmokes]

Nightingale says we’re interested in Goldschmidt.

Will he accepted being paid in deferred nats bucks?

[nobleisthyname]

Fangraphs projects the Nationals to be 27th in catcher WAR this year (using a 50/50 mix of Steamer and ZiPS). Here's what they have to say about Ruiz.

Keibert Ruiz looked like a competent player on both sides of the ball by age 23. However, in the two seasons since he signed his $50 million extension, his play has been below replacement level. Two years ago, the problem was his glove; he was arguably the worst defensive catcher in the sport. His defense rebounded in 2024 (it was simply bad rather than atrocious), but then it was his bat’s turn to fall off a cliff. His 71 wRC+ ranked last among the 102 NL players who took at least 400 trips to the plate.

Here’s the good news: Our projections think Ruiz can hit like he did in 2023 and catch like he did in 2024. It isn’t a sexy profile, but it’s enough to merit a starting job at the big league level. That’s more than you can say about the player Ruiz has been for the past two years.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2025-positional-power-rankings-catcher/