Keibert Ruiz's resurgence powers scrappy Nats past Padres
Washington National fans had left Keibert Ruiz for dead.
Most of them had given up on him years ago, expecting him to eventually transition to first base because his defensive metrics were so bad, or even potentially be DFA'd because he looked lost behind the plate as well.
But I had held out hope that the one young player Nats ownership decided to sign to an extension would someday figure it out. Over the past four weeks, Keibert Ruiz has figured it out.
Let's start with the defense.
Right now, Keibert Ruiz is in the 80+ percentile in fielding run value, blocks above average and framing behind the plate, according to Baseball Savant. In 2025, Keibert had a fielding run value and framing in the bottom 1% of the league, and his blocks above average were at 2%.
On Sunday, he threw out three Padres base runners as the Washington Nationals took the home series against San Diego 4-2. Two of the runners were caught in strike 'em out, throw 'em out scenarios. The first ended an inning where the Padres were threatening, and the second ended the game in the 9th.
Keibert Ruiz's bat is on fire in May
On offense, Keibert has always had great bat-to-ball skills (which is obviously the hardest part of hitting), but his approach at the plate has always been baffling, to say the least.
This season, the coaching staff seems to have him locked in, though it did take a few weeks for him to start producing at the dish as he has over the past four weeks.
"That's the one thing with Keibert is, he can cover a lot of pitches, but he can also hit the ball really hard. And it's really hard to hit pitches hard when you're swinging at everything and just making contact," his skipper, Blake Butera, recently told MLB.com. "So one thing we put on him was, shrink the zone a little bit, trust your hand-eye coordination, even if that means taking some borderline pitches that are strikes. Wait until you get a good pitch to hit. Then he's doing the work from there."
In April, Keibert had just 8 hits in 45 ABs and showed zero power while slugging .267. In May, Ruiz had 20 hits in 55 at-bats with 8 doubles and 4 home runs. He's slugging .727 in May with an OPS north of 1.000. He has transformed himself into one of the best offensive catchers in the league, while also improving his defense tremendously.
Keibert is producing behind the plate, and, again, he almost single-handedly won the Nats the game on Sunday, stealing strikes, cutting down runners in critical moments, and guiding a resurgent pitching staff that shut down the Padres offense for the majority of the afternoon and series.
The Nats don't need Keibert Ruiz to be Cal Raleigh for them to be successful, but it doesn't hurt to have him play like one of the best catchers in the game for as long as he can keep this hot streak going.
Keibert Ruiz recorded a career-high three caught stealing, the most in a 9.0 inning-game in Nationals history (2005-pres.)
— Nationals Communications (@NationalsComms) May 31, 2026
Brian Schneider also threw out 3 in a 14.0-inning game on May 24, 2005 at CIN. pic.twitter.com/j8U4LkJ2OB
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This story was originally published May 31, 2026 at 9:08 PM.