How should the Nationals manage the catcher position for the rest of the 2025 season?

There's a lot going on behind the plate for the Nationals. Drew Millas' season has come to an end, CJ Stubbs' major league introduction came to an abrupt end, and now Jorge Alfaro is the next man to receive an opportunity to prove himself in Washington.

With all this movement taking place, it feels like an appropriate time to take inventory of the catcher position for the franchise

This all started when scuffling starter Keibert Ruiz was placed on the 10-day injured list in late June, due to what was diagnosed as a head contusion. He returned for a few days, but quickly landed back on the injured list on July 8 with similar symptoms. He's been on the shelf for nearly two months, and a lot has changed during that time.

Riley Adams has served as the de facto starter during Ruiz's absence. Despite struggling this year as a backup, his performance has improved with this elevated role. He's graded as a roughly league-average hitter since the All-Star Break, which leaps and bounds more productive than Ruiz has been during the past two seasons. The sample size isn't large enough, but it's a very encouraging development for Adams and the Nationals.

From late June through late August, Drew Millas was serving as half of a one-two punch with Adams, and was arguably outplaying him. Millas has always been a positive-WAR player in small sample sizes in the big leagues, and that continued in 2025. In 18 games at the senior circuit this year, he accrued and OPS+ of 128 and was emerging as one of Washington's most dependable hitters. However, his season came to an unfortunate end due to a fractured finger he suffered on August 27. He was immediately placed on the 15-day injured list, and then he was transferred to the 60-day IL on Tuesday, which officially ended his season.

The initial replacement for Millas was CJ Stubbs. He spent more than three seasons with the Astros organization before being acquired by the Nationals in May 2024. Despite light production at the plate between Harrisburg and Rochester this season, he was rewarded with his first big league callup, although it only lasted for a few days. Stubbs appeared in one game, going 0-for-3 at the plate. Judging by what has happened since, it's easy to speculate that he was picked instead of Francisco Mejia (a big league veteran who is also in Rochester) largely due to service time, as Mejia is much closer to reaching free agency.

Stubbs' option back to Triple-A was due to the signing of former top prospect Jorge Alfaro. He hasn't delivered at the plate as much as expected during his major league career, but there are plenty of reasons to continue to believe in him, including his slugging upside. Alfaro was a nearly full-time player from late 2017 through 2022 with the Phillies, Marlins and Padres, but he's struggled to find his footing since. He was supremely productive in Triple-A for the Rockies and Red Sox in 2023, but only briefly played in the majors for either team, and did not appear in affiliated baseball in 2024.

Alfaro had been in the Milwaukee organization this year, but he was trapped behind a well-established duo of William Contreras and Danny Jansen, along with top prospect Jeferson Quero in Triple-A. These factors motivated Alfaro to opt out of his minor league contract, and Washington immediately jumped at the opportunity to sign him. Miguel Cairo and the Nationals decided to let Alfaro start for them the afternoon after his signing, and he delivered with a 1-for-4 debut that included an RBI double in his first at bat.

Meanwhile, Keibert Ruiz has begun taking some reps at first base and officially began a rehab assignment this week. He will presumably return at the major league level before the season ends late this month, although that is not a certainty, and he may not play exclusively at catcher anyway.

The Nationals should seriously consider letting Alfaro carry the bulk of the workload for the rest of this season. Even in spite of his mixed results at the major league level, particularly recently, his earlier years and his productivity in Triple-A suggest that he may still have untapped potential. He's also known to have an impressive throwing arm that controls the running game. Perhaps most importantly, he will not accrue enough service time by the end of this season to reach free agency. If he performs well enough, Washington could seriously consider retaining him this offseason. After all, he's never earned more than $2.725 million in a season, so he will be very affordable.

Since Millas has minor league options left, he will likely return to Rochester to start next season. The question is whether Washington would move on from Ruiz or Adams. The former seems unlikely, but the latter is possible, even in spite of Adams' recent improvement. In fact, it wouldn't be shocking if the Nationals were able to non-tender or designate Adams for assignment, but still reassign him to Rochester.

Regardless of how this turns out by the end of the season and entering the offseason, it seems foolish to not give the highest-upside player a real chance to prove himself. Perhaps this is controversial, but I believe that player is Alfaro. But what do you think? Let me know @stephen_newman1 on X.

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