SAN FRANCISCO — It might have seemed like a small detail in Washington’s game against the San Francisco Giants on Monday night — Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz’s jog out to right-hander Jake Irvin, who was making the second start of his MLB career. But the fourth-inning mound visit felt significant.
In the short term, Ruiz helped Irvin through a jam. With two on and no outs, Irvin had just thrown a first-pitch ball to J.D. Davis. The Nationals were up by five runs, but the outing could have gotten out of hand. Following Ruiz’s mound visit, though, Davis hit into a 6-3 double play. The next pitch, Irvin got Michael Conforto to pop out.
In the bigger picture, it was a sign that Ruiz was comfortable taking charge. That he had the ability to connect with his young pitcher in a tough moment. That he had enough confidence in his gut to make the mound visit to begin with.
“That’s part of maturity. That’s part of seeing something in Jake that he wanted to confront him with,” Manager Dave Martinez said the next day. “It was a perfect moment, and it’s something that, last year, we talked a lot about. That he needs to take control. He needs to see these things. I can’t continue to tell him, ‘Hey, you got to do this.’ I want him to learn and do it himself. And he’s been really good.”
“I mean, we are a family here,” Ruiz said before Monday’s game. “We’re going to be talking to each other and helping everybody and supporting each other. We have to — we need to have good communication.”
Ruiz, 24, is in his second full season with the Nationals after arriving as part of the Max Scherzer-Trea Turner trade in 2021. He signed an eight-year, $50 million extension in the offseason, so he appears set to work with Washington pitchers for years to come. But right now, he is still early in his career, still learning to manage a major league staff.
During spring training, Ruiz said he wasn’t used to balancing game-calling and hitting. Last season presented an experience that was new to him. On Monday, though, he said he feels he has taken a “big step” from 2022 to 2023.
“His retention, in my opinion, has gone through the roof,” said pitching coach Jim Hickey, who said he has seen a huge amount of growth. “His game planning is super solid. His recall is really good, but that’s another one of these things … they’re getting more comfortable, becoming more familiar with the league. … I can’t tell you what a fantastic job he’s done.”
Ruiz said he feels his preparation has improved this year. Having more familiarity with major league hitters helps, but Ruiz said it hasn’t necessarily made it easier, because tendencies and approach by hitters can change.
Henry Blanco, Washington’s catching and strategy coach, said the hardest part about managing a pitching staff is trust. That’s not automatically gained, but rather it grows gradually over time. Washington starter Patrick Corbin said he has seen a more confident Ruiz this year, someone who has a better understanding of staff strengths. Lefty MacKenzie Gore, 24, and righty Josiah Gray, 25, both recently noted how little they shook Ruiz off. All of them pointed to their trust in him.
“When you’re pitching, you trust your gut first,” starter Trevor Williams said. “But then as the season goes on and you have more trust with your battery-mate, you trust them more than your gut. They see things in me as a pitcher, and they see things in their pitchers before the pitcher sees things in themselves. So it’s one of those where it’s a constant battle of back and forth: Do I trust my gut, or do I trust my catcher? And more times than not, you trust your catcher.”
Ruiz is shy but has worked to be more outspoken this year. Blanco believes the new rules, including the pitch clock, have forced Ruiz to be more vocal to relay calls quicker. Blanco likes what he has seen from Ruiz’s conversations with pitchers between innings. And he really likes that Ruiz has been more outspoken with umpires about missed calls.
Blanco still sees room for Ruiz to grow. Ruiz threw out 20 runners a year ago, tied for third in MLB. But he also allowed 51 stolen bases, tied for fifth most. Early in the season, Ruiz was having trouble with his errant throws to second base because he wasn’t mechanically sound. Blanco felt as if he was rushing his throws instead of trusting himself.
Ruiz also will have to improve his defensive metrics, which have been below the major league average. His pop time, which measures when a catcher receives the ball until it hits the defender’s glove at second base, is 2.03. That ranks 43rd among qualified catchers, according to Baseball Savant. The website also measures catcher framing runs, a stat that converts strikes “stolen” by a catcher — in other words, balls successfully framed as strikes. Ruiz is 55th out of 56 catchers.
But Blanco believes that improvements will come with time.
“I think he’s thinking that right now he needs to do more, he needs to be the leader of this team,” Blanco said. “Believe me, nothing’s wrong with that. I think he’s the perfect guy. Even last year, he didn’t speak that much. Now he’s starting to say stuff. … He’s trying to let everyone know that ‘I’m going to be here. I’m going to respect everybody, but I’m going to be one of the leaders of this team.’ ”