Nationals Manager Encouraged by Opening Day Performance of Struggling Slugger
Keibert Ruiz was supposed to be the catcher of the future for the Washington Nationals.
That's what he was billed as when they acquired him from the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021 as part of the Max Scherzer and Trea Turner blockbuster that really started the rebuilding era of this franchise.
Despite the defensive deficiencies in Ruiz's game, the thought was his bat would be so far along in comparison that his offense would make up for his current issues behind the plate.
That hasn't been the case.
In the three full years with the Nationals, he has failed to produce an OPS+ that was above the league average of 100, coming close in 2023 with a 98, but seeing his output fall off a cliff last season with a figure that cratered to 74.
Washington has been patient with the young catcher, but their draft last year suggested time might be running out for Ruiz to truly stake his claim as the backstop in the nation's capital going forward.
Because of that, this is a huge season for the 26-year-old.
And he delivered on Opening Day, going 2-for-4 with a solo home run off NL Cy Young contender Zack Wheeler which gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead.
Much of the story coming out of the opener, and for good reason, was the dominance of their ace MacKenzie Gore, who racked up 13 strikeouts without issuing a walk, becoming only the second starting pitcher in the AL/NL era to accomplish that stat line -- joining Hall of Famer Bob Gibson.
However, Ruiz caught the eye of manager Dave Martinez.
"It's awesome. He works so hard, over the winter, during spring. He really wants to get off to a good start. My big thing with him is not to put that much pressure on him. Just go out there and play. He did the work. Now just go out there and have fun and play the game. He did that today," the skipper said, per Mark Zuckerman of MASN.
The long ball wasn't the only thing notable for Ruiz, though.
He also threw out a baserunner -- albeit Kyle Schwarber -- after only catching 19.8% of runners stealing in 2025.
The next step is building upon this performance to make it be the norm going forward.
"Keibert, another kid as we talked about that matured a lot. Handled himself well. Threw that guy out. Big home run. I thought he handled himself really well behind the plate. That's awesome to see," Martinez added.
