All season long we've been talking about the resurgent Nationals offense. It seems, though, that there's almost no shortage of new things to talk about every week.
On the heels of a 2022 campaign where the former consensus top 100 prospect played his first full season in the majors, posting a 92 wRC+ and roughly average defensive metrics, the Nationals bought into Keibert Ruiz. Figuring the 24-year-old would only improve from there, he and the team agreed to an eight-year contract extension worth $50 million running through 2030, with club options for the next two seasons that could take the contract's value to $76 million.
I and many other Nationals fans wanted to love Keibert. From the moment that contract was signed, and he told Dan Kolko the first thing he was going to do with the money was "Taco Bell," Ruiz felt like he was destined to be a long-term fan favorite. That wasn't really how it shook out.
Keibert became the worst defender in baseball by fielding run value in 2023. He hit 18 home runs that year and his raw offensive numbers rose, but so did the rest of the league's. That resulted in a weighted output almost identical to the year prior. He'd finish below replacement level by FanGraphs WAR over each of the next three years, with each season beginning with the coaching staff reciting how they'd been working with him on becoming the best version of himself before he went out and posted negative framing numbers and an OBP under .300.
The wheels completely fell off in 2025. Ruiz missed significant time with concussion issues after being struck by a foul ball. Being injured by a batted ball was not a new phenomenon for Keibert, but this and other injuries kept him off the field for over half the season. When he was playing, Nationals fans felt almost like it would be better if he wasn't. His worst offensive season of his career saw him post -1.0 fWAR in just 68 games. His 13 home runs in almost twice as many games the year prior fell to just two, with a career-worst ISO of .071.
Fast forward to May 2026. A report from Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic at the end of the month detailed the all-hands-on-deck meeting that the Toboni-Butera regime has quickly become known for. From the moment he stepped out of that meeting room, Ruiz's bat speed--among the lowest in the league--jumped 2 MPH. His rate of balls pulled in the air has gone from a career-worst 16.5% last year to a career-best 37.8% in 2026.
In 14 games and 53 plate appearances since the meeting, it isn't a stretch to say that Ruiz has been the best catcher in baseball. He's slashing .392/.396/.765 with 11 extra-base hits. In just three weeks, he doubled his home run total from all of 2025. Even his defense, which Nusbaum described as the result of a lower stance as necessitated by the coaching staff, has become a wholesale plus for the first time in his career. That led to Keibert leading all major league catchers in FanGraphs WAR across the month of May--despite only logging 60 plate appearances in that time. The next-best performer, Dillon Dingler, took nearly twice as many.
Keibert's not the only player on the team benefiting from these meetings. The Nationals have gotten the most they've ever gotten out of center fielder Jacob Young, who entered the season expected to be the team's fourth or fifth outfielder. Instead, his perennial Gold Glove-caliber defense has been met by the highest offensive output of his career, with 8 home runs through June 1 and an ISO over double his previous career high in 2024. Yes, his OBP starts with a 2, but the Nationals are as aware as any team in the league that not every player can do everything, and if a top-3 center field defender in baseball can post a 92 wRC+ with 25 HR power, that'll play.
This is a new era of Nationals baseball focused on getting the absolute most out of its hitters. For Keibert Ruiz, the effort was always there, but the information and approach wasn't. No matter how many times Davey Martinez told the media that "the message was clear," the team's offense simply could not put all the pieces together. CJ Abrams would have a torrid few months and go cold the rest of the way; he now runs a 158 wRC+ through two months. James Wood threatened the single-season strikeout record for a hitter; this year, he leads the majors in runs scored, sits in the top 5 of walk rate, and has climbed out of the bottom 20 in strikeout rate. Nobody else in the top 12 of walk rate has a wRC+ as high as he does.
Now, with his always-strong work ethic finally being met with the instructions he always needed, Keibert Ruiz is finally putting the pieces together and becoming what he was meant to be.
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