Not a whole lot is going right for the Nats right now. Between injuries and trades, the once fearsome offense is a shell of itself. However, one player who is still producing is catcher Keibert Ruiz. Plenty of players have not been stepping up, but you can’t lay that accusation on Ruiz, who homered last night.
In a season full of surprise contributors, Ruiz might be the most surprising of them all. His 8-year $50 million contract looked like a complete anchor heading into the season. According to fWAR, he had been a below replacement level player each of the last three seasons. In 2023, that was due to his abysmal defense, but in the past two seasons, the bat fell off a cliff as well.
It felt like 2025 was rock bottom for the Nats catcher. He posted -1 WAR and had concussion issues which put his future in question. With the trade for Harry Ford in the offseason, it felt like his time in DC was coming to a merciful end. However, the 28 year old catcher has completely flipped the switch this season on both sides of the ball.
Honestly, the biggest surprise for me has been his defensive improvements. With the help of new catching coach Bobby Wilson, Ruiz has turned into a slightly above average defensive catcher. That may not sound like anything crazy, but given where he was that is a radical turnaround. From 2023 to 2025, he was the worst defensive catcher in baseball.
The framing was poor, his blocking was a disaster and he was not great at controlling the running game. He still has some issues with the running game, but he has taken massive strides in the other two areas. Ruiz has gone from -6 blocking runs last year to a mediocre but acceptable -1 this season. The framing has been the biggest area of improvement though, going from -9 runs last year to +1 this year.
One thing that helps his framing value even more is the fact he has gotten a lot better at ABS challenges. He struggled with the new system early in the season, but he has really picked it up. Ruiz has the 7th most challenge wins in all of baseball and his win percentage is a slightly above average 60%.
Ruiz has also made substantial offensive improvements, which have made him a rock solid catcher. On the season, he has a 107 wRC+, a career high outside of 8 at bats in 2020. He has really leaned into pulling the ball in the air, which leads to his outslugging his pedestrian exit velocities. Ruiz is making contact like always, but he is elevating the ball more often which is leading to more hits.
His plate discipline remains questionable, but even that has come along slightly in the second half. Since the All-Star Break, Ruiz has more walks than strikeouts. His 7 walks in the second half is the same as he had in all of the first half.
There is actually an interesting reason for this. Ruiz is still chasing a lot, but he has found a way to be more selective in 3 ball counts. He may not get there often, but when he does, the Nats catcher is finding a way to turn those into walks.
In 2026, Keibert Ruiz has been a solid starting catcher. Given where he was last year, this is a minor miracle. He is hitting .279 with a .761 OPS and solid defense. When the Nats acquired Ruiz, that was about what we expected from him. It has taken a long time to get there, but it seems like we have finally arrived.
Ruiz has been outperforming his xwOBA pretty substantially all season, so it is worth looking out for some offensive regression. However, there is some reason to believe he can overperform at least slightly moving forward. His high contact, pull heavy approach tends to lead to more hits than expected. If he can continue pulling the ball in the air over 30% of the time, he should be in decent shape.
For the season, Keibert Ruiz has 1.5 WAR according to Fangraphs and Baseball Reference. That is not star level production by any means, but if he can perform like that for the rest of his contract, that 8-year $50 million deal won’t look so bad after all. There are not a lot of positives for the Nats right now, but Keibert Ruiz is one of them and his turnaround has been so much fun to watch.
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