Washington Nationals: Catcher position goes from weakness to strength

After being one of the biggest weaknesses for the Washington Nationals last season, catching now appears to be one of the team’s strengths in 2019.

Ever since the injury that cost Wilson Ramos the end of his 2016 season, the Washington Nationals have seemingly struggled with production behind the plate. But that could be about to change after the team acquired Yan Gomes and Kurt Suzuki as their new tandem for 2019.

Suzuki signed a two-year $10 million deal just under two weeks ago, reuniting with the team he helped make the postseason back in 2012. He was coming off a pair of good years with the Atlanta Braves where he arguably hit better than most catchers in his two-year spell there.

Then, with the team still looking for another catcher to pair with the former Brave, they called the Cleveland Indians. They quickly came to an agreement that would net them All-Star catcher Gomes, giving them one of the strongest combinations in the league.

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In 2017 and 2018 combined, Suzuki recorded a 4.6 fWAR, while Gomes sported a 3.9 fWAR which were the seventh and tenth ranked figures respectively among major league catchers in that time. Meanwhile, in those two seasons, the Nationals catching corps recorded a -0.7 fWAR, which ranks dead last in the major leagues. So to go from a negative combined fWAR to two top 10 options is a huge upgrade.

The Nationals will even have a strong third option sitting in Triple-A in Spencer Kieboom who was impressive down the stretch in the major leagues. While many thought he was set to be the backup heading into 2019, being able to have him waiting just in case of injury means the team even has strength in depth which it didn’t have previously when Pedro Severino was the third choice catcher.

So far, it’s still to be determined how the playing time will shake out between the two backstops though, as it seems manager Dave Martinez wants to see them in person before deciding. He told Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post that “they’re both going to split time.” Martinez then said “we’ll get to spring training and I’ll have conversations with them. But they’re both going to play a lot. They both bring a lot.”

Regardless of how the Nats divide up the playing time, one player, in particular, seems to be excited by both options. “Here we are with the opportunity to have two veterans catchers,” Max Scherzer told reporters at Winterfest. “With Kurt [Suzuki], he’s been around the league so he’s seen a lot of different things and I’m excited to see what he thinks and continue to work with him because the fun will start really in the second half with those guys. The first half it takes a while to really know what’s going on and to get on the same page, but the second half, that’s when you really figure out where we’re at.”

Gomes has also recently worked with some high-quality pitchers and helped them reach their full potential. When you’ve caught for Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer while helping bring along youngsters such as Mike Clevinger and Shane Bieber, that’s some valuable experience to have, and something the Nats likely coveted.

Kurt Suzuki and Yan Gomes are a signal of the Washington Nationals intentions moving forward. The front office saw a need and addressed it emphatically, so hopefully, the starting rotation will follow shortly.