There were a lot of Nationals hitters who were surprisingly productive in 2026. However, the biggest surprise for me was Keibert Ruiz, who turned his career around this season. Entering this season, I had given up on the Nationals catcher after several difficult seasons. He responded by having the best year of his career on both sides of the ball.
Simply put, Keibert Ruiz was terrible in 2024 and 2025. He was arguably the worst defensive catcher in the sport while posting a .610 OPS over those two
seasons. His 2025 season was also interrupted by concussions which put his future behind the plate in question. The vibes around Keibert Ruiz were not good.
In April, it looked like more of the same, at least on the offensive side of the ball. Although he looked better defensively, Ruiz still only hit .178 with a .480 OPS in April. The turning point came on May 7th against the Twins. In that game, Ruiz had two doubles and a homer, which led the Nats to a 7-5 victory.
That game gave us a look at what would make Ruiz successful the rest of the year. All three of those extra base hits were pulled down the line. Keibert Ruiz started pulling everything and it led to a lot of hits.
In the 2026 season, Keibert Ruiz pulled the ball 58.7% of the time. That was the most of all qualified hitters, with the next closest batter sitting at 54.5%. He also managed to pull the ball in the air a lot. His 33.9% air pull rate was the second highest in all of baseball, only behind Pete Crow-Armstrong.
That game against the Twins truly exemplified Ruiz’s offensive approach. Ruiz has always made a lot of contact, but he does not hit the ball that hard and his lack of speed means he is not getting many infield hits. That led to BABIP numbers around .260-270 for his career, which is very low.
Pulled baseballs tend to have higher BABIP’s. With more of those pulled balls, Ruiz’s BABIP shot up to .288. With more balls dropping, Ruiz saw his batting average go up to .280. Since he does not walk a lot, Ruiz has to rely on hitting at least .265 to be a solid hitter.
This year he accomplished that and it led to great results. On the season, Ruiz hit .280 with a .759 OPS. His wRC+ sat at 105 and his OPS+ was 107. That made Ruiz an above average hitter for the first time in a full season.
However, the offensive improvement was only half the story, and honestly the less surprising half. For most of his career, Ruiz did not have a strong defensive reputation and rightfully so. From 2023 to 2025, Ruiz had a combined -39 fielding run value, a truly awful mark.
In 2026, that changed, with Keibert Ruiz being an above average defensive catcher. He has +2 FRV on the season, with most of that being due to his well above average framing. Catching coach Bobby Wilson completely transformed Ruiz as a framer, something we documented during the season.
After being a liability for years, Ruiz became a positive on both sides of the ball in 2026. Ruiz will never be a star, but this year he proved he can be an above average player who can give you 100 starts behind the dish. On the season, he posted 1.9 fWAR and 2.2 bWAR. Those are great totals, especially for a guy who had been below replacement level the past couple of years.
Entering the season, Keibert Ruiz’s 8-year $50 million contract looked like an albatross that the Nats might have to cut bait on. However, after this season, it looks like a perfectly fine deal. He actually outperformed his contract this season.
After this year, Ruiz’s contact has 4 years left with $31.5 million left on it. There are two club options after that as well. If he can play at a similar level to this season, that is a nice deal for the team. However, he needs to keep it up.
This will likely be one of Ruiz’s better years, but I have faith that he can be an average player on both sides of the ball moving forward. If he can do that, the Nats will be happy. You do not need every guy on the team to be a star. Having solid guys like Keibert Ruiz matters.
With all the tough times he has had, you have to be happy for Ruiz. He seems like a good person and a quiet leader in the clubhouse. At 28 years old, he is one of the veterans on the team and carries himself like that. He does a good job working with the pitching staff and just provides stability.
Keibert Ruiz needed a big year badly and that is exactly what happened. With hard work and better coaching around him, Ruiz looks like the Nats catcher for the foreseeable future. Based on my preseason expectations, there might not be anyone who had a better year than Keibert Ruiz.
Season Grade: A+
