Gomes surprised but excited by trade to Nationals

When he got a call Friday afternoon from Indians general manager Chris Antonetti saying a trade was in the works, Yan Gomes assumed it involved one of a couple teams. The Mets and Dodgers both had been linked to him in recent days, so he figured he was headed in one of those directions.

So what did the 31-year-old catcher think when Antonetti told him he was heading to the Nationals?

"To be honest, I got taken back a little bit," Gomes said today during a conference call with reporters gathered for Nationals Winterfest. "Because that wasn't one of the teams that on Twitter or whatever it was, that wasn't one of the teams. It surprised us."

If only Gomes had access to Mike Rizzo's whiteboard. Turns out the Nationals GM had Gomes on his mind since the season ended. Even after he signed fellow catcher Kurt Suzuki last week.

"We could've went for the big free agent everyday catcher, or get a trade for a younger more everyday type of player. We felt that the best bang for our buck was to go after both of these guys," Rizzo said. "We identified them early in the offseason, and really focused in on these two guys specifically and went after them."

Rizzo spoke with both of his new catchers Friday night, explained his thoughts and said both were on board with the plan to split up playing time.

"I'm ready to do whatever it is to help the team win," said Gomes, who started 105 games behind the plate this season in Cleveland. "And help the Nationals hopefully take the next step and be World Series contenders. Whatever it is, I'm ready for it and will be ready when my name gets called."

In praising Gomes' wide-ranging skills, Rizzo specifically mentioned his pitch-framing ability, something that showed up in the club's analytical evaluation of him after the season. Asked about it, Gomes started off by saying he gets offseason help from his wife, who throws him golf balls to perfect his technique - but then paused as the room of reporters looked quizzically at each other.

"That is kind of true, but I'm trying to lighten up the mood here," Gomes said with a laugh. "I think it's just something that I do take a lot of pride in. Presentation, getting to know umpires, I think it's part of our game. It's part of the catching job, and I take a lot of pride in that. There's a lot of moments in the game where a strike call can mean a lot, and I'm trying my best to get a strike called on every single pitch."

Gomes has plenty of experience working with elite starting pitchers, having served as Corey Kluber's batterymate since 2013. He'll now have a chance to work with Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, a notion that helped make Friday night's news easier to embrace.

A welcome-to-D.C. text message from Scherzer certainly didn't hurt, either.

"That was literally the first thing I thought about," he said. "I've been fortunate enough to get to work with some unbelievable starting pitchers with the Indians, and the Nationals starting pitchers are right there. You've got two of the top guys in the league, and it's exciting."