This is a big year for Keibert Ruiz and he knows it. The Nationals catcher is red hot to start the season
The Washington Nationals offense has been slumping to start the season. They have been striking out far too much and have struggles with runners in scoring position. Guys like Dylan Crews, Josh Bell, Jacob Young, and Luis Garcia Jr. have stumbled out of the gates, combining for just five hits. However, one guy who is not slumping is Keibert Ruiz, who is looking to bounce back from a brutal 2024.
Prove it Year:
2025 is a crossroads in the year in Keibert Ruiz’s career. In the offseason, I wrote about how the organization has put a lot of trust in Ruiz, and that it is time for him to live up to his end of the bargain. So far he has done just that.
Before the 2023 season, the Nats made the bold move of extending Keibert on an 8-year extension that guaranteed the catcher $50 million dollars. Ruiz was coming off a solid, but not spectacular first full season in the big leagues after coming over in the Max Scherzer/Trea Turner trade. It was a big move that showed the Nats hierarchy was all in on Ruiz.
The last couple of years have been up and down to say the least. In 2023, Keibert was solid with the bat, putting up a .717 OPS with 18 homers. However, he was a train wreck defensively, grading out as the worst defensive catcher in baseball.
In 2024, his bat fell off a cliff, putting up a paltry .619 OPS. However, he was passable behind the plate defensively, even if he was not great. A big storyline in 2024 was Ruiz’s early season illness that saw him lose 20 pounds.
Rushing him back from the illness could explain some of the drop in offensive production. However, there is more to it than just that. If the illness hampered him so much, how did he make strides defensively? I think the bigger problem was Ruiz’s approach and plate discipline. He was chasing too much and making far too much weak contact.
Positive Signs in 2025:
Ruiz has gotten off to a great start in 2025. He is hitting .381 with a 1.149 OPS. The Nationals catcher has gotten a hit in every game this season, and has a 10 game hitting streak dating back to last season. He is just 46 games away from tying Joe DiMaggio!
Keibert has also shown off the power stroke, hitting two home runs so far this season. The quality of his at bats are also just much better. He is taking more pitches and finding his pitch to hit, rather than just swinging for the sake of it. Ruiz has the bat to ball skills to hit with two strikes and be patient, so it is cool to see him lay off the junk.
He also looks more athletic, both at the plate and in the field. One metric that quantifies this is his pop time on stolen base attempts. Last year his pop time was 2.06 seconds on average, which is substantially slower than the average catcher. This year it has been a much better 1.91 seconds. You are seeing the results of this, with Keibert catching two of four base stealers so far.
It is a small sample size, but it is something I have noticed while watching the games. I have never been impressed with Keibert’s ability to control the running game before this season. However, he looks much quicker out of the crouch so far. On the broadcast, MASN mentioned that Ruiz hired a personal chef, so maybe a better diet is helping him trim off the fat.
Moving Forward:
Of course, this is still a tiny sample size, so this could just be a mirage. However, it would be a big plus for the Nats if Keibert can truly establish himself as an average to above average starting catcher. He has always had the bat to ball skills, he just hasn’t put it all together on either side of the ball yet.
I am still not totally all in yet because we have seen good stretches from Keibert before, especially at the plate. Those tend to be interrupted by extended periods where Ruiz is constantly rolling over ground balls to the second baseman early in the count. We need to see sustained success, but Keibert Ruiz has come into the year with the right mindset and it is showing on the field so far.