Slimmer Ruiz determined to put 2024 struggles behind him

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Ask Keibert Ruiz what he thought of his 2024 season, and the Nationals catcher doesn’t mince words.

“I was really disappointed with my season last year,” he said. “It wasn’t good, you know? I wasn’t happy.”

Ruiz then immediately flips the switch and turns his attention toward the upcoming season, one he can’t wait to get started.

“This is a new year. This is 2025, and I’m not going to think about the past. Just put my focus on this year.”

Before he could flip that switch, though, Ruiz had to take a hard look at last season. He had to be willing to accept his faults, not try to sugarcoat anything that went wrong and figure out how to improve in every possible way.

It began with his performance at the plate. Ruiz got off to a miserable start to the season, and by mid-May he owned an unfathomable .141/.186/.207 slash line and a .392 OPS that ranked last among 270 regular major league hitters on that date.

He slowly got himself back on track, but even a halfway decent second half that included a .414 slugging percentage after July 1 wasn’t enough to salvage that entire season. His final stats: a .229/.260/.359 slash line, 21 doubles, 13 homers, 57 RBIs and a .619 OPS that ranked 166th out of 169 major leaguers with at least 450 plate appearances.

Ruiz’s biggest problem – and it’s been his biggest problem since he arrived in D.C. – was his tendency to swing too much. He chased at 38.2 percent of pitches outside the strike zone, leaving him in the fourth percentile among all big leaguers. That didn’t lead to swinging strikes, though. Because he’s so adept at putting the bat on the ball, he managed to make contact on a ridiculous 79.9 percent of those pitches out of the zone, more than 22 percent higher than the league average.

Weak contact produced weak results, and Ruiz knows he can’t continue that trend any longer.

“The chase percent, that’s one of my goals this year,” he said. “I need to walk more. I need to see more pitches. I need to swing at more strikes, pitches in the strike zone.”

It’s easy to say, of course. It’s harder to do, especially for someone who has been a free swinger as long as he can remember.

“My whole life I’ve been aggressive,” Ruiz said. “But in the big leagues, when they saw that, they know they’re not going to throw you right down the middle. They’re going to throw around the zone. I’ve just got to be patient and wait for my pitch.”

Behind the plate, Ruiz also is determined to improve. He believes his throws progressively got better as the 2024 season played out, but he knows he can continue to get better in that skill. And he’s most concerned with improving his pitch framing, most notably at the bottom of the zone.

For what it’s worth, he was much better at framing last season than in the previous one, improving from a “Run Value” of minus-13 to minus-1, according to Baseball Savant.

How does Ruiz turn his whole game around? By getting his body into better shape and then keeping himself preoccupied with details over the big picture.

“I think to focus more every day,” he said. “Focus on what I do outside the field. Taking care of my body. Being more healthy. I lost a couple pounds this year, so I feel lighter, a little more athletic. Just paying attention to those little things, that’s going to make a big difference.”

The Nationals like what they’ve seen so far this spring from the cornerstone catcher they gave an eight-year, $50 million extension to in March 2023.

“If you’ve seen him, he’s in terrific shape, probably the best shape he’s been coming into camp,” general manager Mike Rizzo said. “He worked tirelessly this offseason, a lot of it with our coaching staff, to work on some shortcomings in his game. He’s been here for a while, but he’s still a young player, still learning. Catching every day at the big league level is no easy task. And he catches as much as anybody.”

The worse things got last year, the more Ruiz wanted to play, hoping to fight his way out of his struggles. Club officials worry he was too focused on getting his season off to a good start, which only compounded matters when he struggled.

An severe bout of the flu in April that actually landed him on the 15-day injured list didn’t help, but Ruiz insists that’s not to blame for his season-long problems.

He’s feeling great now, leaner and full of energy. At 26, he’s still got plenty of career ahead of him. And a strong start to this season would do wonders for his confidence.

“I’ve just got to control what I can control: The little things,” Ruiz said. “Don’t think big. Just control the little things and trust my ability.”

Again, it’s easier said than done. Especially for an admitted worrier who isn’t always able to avoid thinking about the big picture.

“I do think big. I expect a lot from myself,” he said. “But sometimes you’ve just got to control the little pieces, and everything will work out.”