The Nats at catcher are currently the worst in baseball. In the previous two seasons they were 24th and 24th in wins above position, which tracks with what we all know. They are bad. They haven't been the worst, thanks mainly to catcher being such a hard position that other teams were complete failures, but now they are the complete failure. Their issues at catcher might be the worst at any position in baseball*
Their main catcher Keibert Ruiz is hitting .182 / .203 / .303. Traditionally a minus behind the plate with the glove, he's managed to be actually decent this year but it's very iffy looking at defensive stats at such a small time frame. Still he'd have to have been turned into a defensive wizard to make up for his bat. Offensively Ruiz has never had power or patience and relied on putting the balls in play and getting hits to create value. In the past few years though he can't get the ball up any more and he's lost his bats speed meaning he's become a very slow runner who hits weak ground balls. That's a recipe for... well what you see in that batting line.
Drew Millas is on the other hand a solid defender, or at least always has been, meaning there's a little less pressure put on his bat to perform. Unfortunately he hasn't been able to get over even a lowered bar. He's hitting .148 / .220 / .185. Similar to Ruiz there's no power in the bat and this isn't something that will come around. He's 28 (over half a year OLDER than Ruiz) and he's historically never hit for power. There seemed to be some hope in 2023 & 2024 that he was a late bloomer and he'd be able to have some weak MLB power but those now appear to be flukes. He might do slightly better than this at the plate but he's also getting around an age you expect some drop off.
But the Nats brass anticipated such a problem and made a trade in the off-season for a "ready about now" catcher. Harry Ford has been a solid prospect in recent years and was blocked by the Cal Raleigh so was there for the taking and the Nats got him. The problem is currently he's putting up Ruiz/Millas numbers but in AAA .174 / .287 / .209. It's the worst he's done in an extended time at the plate in his career and a far cry from his .283 / .408 / .460 in AAA last season. PCL or not that's a big drop. Worrisome his walk rate and k-rate both are going in the wrong direction. He's not seen as good enough a defensive catcher to stick there for a career (there had been talk of trying him in the OF in Seattle) so there's no point in bringing him up with the hopes the bat catches up. The good news is the guy just turned 23 at the start of the season so early season blip is completely likely. But that's only good news for the long run not for right now.
At this point you look for anything and might that be Riley Adams? Another questionable glove behind the plate his numbers at AAA are not inspiring, but at .216 / 326 / .378 they at least aren't incredibly depressing. He's has shown time and again he's not a major league hitter but at this point "decidedly below average at the plate" would be an improvement. AA offers a couple of interesting choices. Caleb Lomavita is one of those raw talents that you like but needs polishing in all phases of the game. He's not pushing anything in AA so a call-up would almost certainly be a negative. So we're left with Max Romero a 2022 draft pick of the Nats who has legit power, and a tendency to swing a miss way too much with no patience. Currently he's managing a touch more patience and a decent line in AA but history would expect him to get eaten alive in the majors with that whiff profile.
That's the long of it. The short of it is they got nothing and honestly I got nothing.
Usually for a team in this position, you let this play out. But when you are absolutely the worst and you aren't trying to move forward with a true prospect then you gotta do something. You can't just be "we have no plan here other than to suck real bad". It's a terrible look that says not "we're making sacrifices for the future" but "we absolutely don't care". The fans deserve at least a bit of effort from the front office here. Even if it's just a minor league contract stab at an old name or a trade for someone else's AAA no-name. Give us something that shows you know this is unacceptable.
*Colorado's SS and the Angels' LF rank as the other possibilities.
2 comments:
I mean, I hear you and agree with this whole post, but I think the team has "no plan here other than to suck real bad" and that they "absolutely don't care" about wins and losses this season.
And if the plan is to hope for improvement, really, neither Millas's nor Ruiz's true talent bats can be this bad. Improvement might be coming. Getting one or both to be replacement level seems perfectly reasonable. (And probably has better odds than you'd get by signing some MiLFA.)
The real downside surprise this season has been Ford. I mean, it's very very early, and I'm not fully regretting the trade yet, but Ferrer has been the 14th most productive reliever in the league by fWAR. And taken with the light Gore package and poor early returns on Bennett vs Perales, I'm pretty far from "in Toboni I trust".
I would modify your remarks a bit. I think that the team does care about W-L this season. Toboni/Butera is doing a very good job of day-to-day field management, with the goal of winning whatever games can be won with whatever playing talent they may have on the shelf.
However, I agree with a modified version of what you said. They are not willing to spend any future talent value in the interest of gaining more present talent value. And they're not willing to spend much money on player comp, either.
Post a Comment