As spring training fast approaches, it's time to break down the state of the Nationals roster, position by position. The series continues today with the catching corps ...
The Nationals didn't get enough production from their catchers the last two seasons. Of this, no one can deny. Matt Wieters, well-liked as he was by members of the pitching staff and the rest of the clubhouse, simply could not hit well enough to justify as much playing time as he received. Trouble was, none of the Nats' other catching options were an upgrade.
Pedro Severino finally got his chance to play every day when Wieters was out with a hamstring injury, but proved entirely not up to the task. Spencer Kieboom held his own, especially behind the plate, but the 27-year-old rookie had an awfully low ceiling and it showed.
Put it all together and Nationals catchers produced a collective .624 OPS last season, 25th in the majors. And that still qualified as major improvement from 2017, when they sported a .594 OPS that ranked dead last in the sport.
So, as he sought to upgrade his catching corps this winter, general manager Mike Rizzo elected not to go get one of the few elite No. 1 backstops available, but instead to acquire two veterans who might just end up combining forces to be as productive as any one star.
The first move was to sign old friend Kurt Suzuki, who five years after getting traded from Washington to Oakland returned to the Nationals on a two-year, $10 million deal. Suzuki was an opportunistic hitter the last time he played in D.C.; he batted just .239 but amassed 50 RBIs in only 445 plate appearances.
But over the last two seasons in Atlanta, he became a far more accomplished offensive force, one capable of launching a ball out of the park with some regularity (31 homers in 697 plate appearances, to go along with a .276 batting average and .341 on-base percentage).
Suzuki was a part-time time catcher with the Braves, though, and the Nationals recognized that was probably the right way to go with a 35-year-old who has plenty of wear and tear on his tires. So only 10 days after signing Suzuki, Rizzo went out and snagged another quality catcher, acquiring Yan Gomes from the Indians for right-hander Jefry RodrÃguez, outfield prospect Daniel Johnson and minor league infielder Andrew Monasterio.
Nats fans may not know a whole lot about Gomes, but they'll quickly learn that the first Brazilian-born player in major league history provides a potent bat that earned him a Silver Slugger Award in 2014 and an All-Star nod last season. Gomes' .754 OPS ranked seventh among all catchers with at least 300 plate appearances. (Suzuki's .777 mark ranked fifth, by the way.)
Manager Davey Martinez has yet to provide a plan for his two new catchers, but they should get comparable playing time early in the season, perhaps with one of the two earning more starts later on if he proves better than the other. Gomes has better numbers against lefties, and Suzuki has slightly better numbers against righties, but it's not enough disparity to mandate a platoon situation.
Given their respective abilities to produce at the plate, it'll also be interesting to see if Martinez is willing to use his catchers off the bench late in games (typically a no-no for managers who don't want to risk the possibility of wasting his No. 2 catcher and then having his starter get injured).
If one did land on the disabled list for any length of the time, the other would almost certainly need to play nearly every day because the Nationals' catching depth remains uninspiring.
Severino, long touted as the organization's long-term catcher of the future, has all but disappeared following his rough 2018 season. He's only 25 but he owns a .560 OPS in 105 career big league games, and he's now out of options and can't be sent back to Triple-A without first passing through waivers.
Kieboom proved better than advertised during his lengthy stint as the Nats' No. 2 catcher last season, but the soon-to-be 28-year-old nonetheless posted a .642 OPS in 52 major league games and isn't viewed as someone who is poised to develop much more as a hitter.
Raudy Read, meanwhile, remains on the 40-man roster following a difficult year that included an 80-game suspension for a positive PED test. The 25-year-old does have more offensive upside than Severino or Kieboom, but he has plenty he still needs to prove to the organization.