Nationals fans all know that Keibert Ruiz has had a great season. He has risen from the ashes to become one of the more productive catchers in the league. In a season full of offensive success stories, Ruiz is arguably the biggest organizational win. However, I still don’t think Ruiz is being talked about enough.
It has flown under the radar because the team has not been good, but Keibert Ruiz has been spectacular since the start of August. In 26 games, Ruiz is hitting .361 with a .936 OPS. He looks
fresh and confident down the stretch, which is a great sign.
This hot run has Ruiz’s season stats looking really strong. For the year he is now hitting .289 with a .790 OPS. His wRC+ is now up to 113, by far his best in a full season. In 2024 and 2025, Ruiz hit .235 with a .610 OPS, making this turnaround borderline miraculous.
The biggest factor behind Ruiz’s offensive breakout is his batted ball profile. In the modern game, pulling the ball in the air has become a big emphasis. Those batted balls tend to get the best results. Among qualified hitters on Baseball Savant, nobody pulls the ball in the air at a higher rate than Keibert Ruiz. His 34.2% air pull rate just beats out Pete Crow-Armstong, who air pulls 34% of the time.
For a slower player without much raw power who puts the ball in play a lot, hitting it at the right angles matters a lot. We saw that last year with Ruiz. Even in 2025, he was barely striking out. However, his ground ball rate spiked, which saw his OPS drop to a career low .595. Ruiz was also pulling the ball at the lowest rate of his career.
This year he has totally flipped this switch. His 59.7% pull rate is the highest number in all of baseball by over 5 percentage points. Ruiz is constantly getting out in front of balls and finding green grass to the pull side from both sides of the plate. This extreme approach does not work for everyone, but it suits Ruiz, who has exceptional hand-eye coordination.
Pulling the ball in the air helps him find easy hits, but it also makes hitting home runs easier. At 380 feet, Ruiz’s average home run distance is one of the lowest in all of baseball. Everything that goes over the wall counts the same, so this is not a bad thing. It honestly shows how Ruiz is able to tap into all the raw power he has.
His skillset is very different from a James Wood, so he does not hit the same way. One thing that this staff has done well is tailor their coaching to the individual. They have core principles like elevating the baseball, but that does not have to happen in the same way.
Keibert Ruiz’s offensive turnaround has been remarkable. However, Nats fans always knew he had hitting ability. He was not this good, but back in 2023, Ruiz had a solid offensive season. I think Keibert Ruiz’s rise on the defensive side of the ball has been even more stunning.
Between 2023 and 2025, Keibert Ruiz was the worst defensive catcher in baseball. His fielding run value numbers those seasons were -22, -7 and -10. In all phases, Ruiz was an absolute mess. His blocking was poor, he could not control the running game and his framing was almost comically bad.
Under the guidance of new catching coach Bobby Wilson, Ruiz has become an above average defensive catcher in one season. This season, Ruiz’s FRV is +2. He still has limitations controlling the running game despite some flashes of success. The big improvements have come with his blocking and framing.
Over the past few seasons, Ruiz had been a consistently poor blocker. His blocks above average were in the negatives each of the past three seasons. This season that number is 0. Keibert Ruiz is an average blocker behind the plate. He is not exactly Yadier Molina, but average is absolutely fine with me.
The biggest leap has come with his framing though. Ruiz was a below average framer in every season of his career. His framing run value was -9 last season, -3 in 2024, -12 in 2023 and -5 in 2022. That seemed like a part of his game that was beyond saving. However, he is up to +3 this season, which is truly remarkable for him.
These improvements have made him a very valuable player. This season, Ruiz has 2.4 bWAR and 2.1 fWAR. Before the season, Ruiz’s 8-year $50 million contract looked like an albatross. However, he has easily outperformed his yearly salary this season. Ruiz has been an above average starting catcher.
You have to give a ton of credit to both the player and the coaching staff for this improvement. It never felt like work ethic was Ruiz’s problem, but now we know for sure that it was not. He just did not have the right guidance. The upgrade from Henry Blanco to Bobby Wilson as catching coach cannot be overstated.
Ruiz’s hard work and determination is also beyond questioning. His future was in doubt after a pair of dreadful seasons and concussion issues. Ruiz worked his butt off to get better on both sides of the ball though. This was a career saving season for the Nats catcher.
He may never be the star he was supposed to be when he came over in the Scherzer/Turner trade. However, Keibert Ruiz has finally established himself. This is likely to be one of his better offensive seasons, but I think he has the ability to be solid on both sides of the ball for years to come.
We have talked about the rise of Keibert Ruiz, but I still think it has been slightly underdiscussed. That is why I wanted to give him his flowers today. He has had a truly amazing season offensively and defensively. It is awesome to see a player you counted out get off the mat and produce in an unexpected fashion.
