The shaky state of the Nationals' No. 2 catching job

We’ve spent the last two weeks here running through all of the prominent position players on the Nationals, reviewing their 2024 performances and looking ahead to how they might (or might not) fit into the club’s 2025 plans. And we’ll transition to the pitching staff beginning Monday, first looking at the starters and then the primary relievers.

But to wrap up the position-player portion of this annual exercise, we still need to examine one more position on the roster: Backup catcher. And because two different players held that role this year, it seems appropriate to lump them in together and examine the overall state of the position.

Riley Adams has been the Nats’ main No. 2 catcher for three years now, and his amount of playing time has been remarkably consistent. He took 155 plate appearances over 48 games in 2022, then 158 over 44 games in 2023, then 130 over 41 games this season. And what’s been the biggest takeaway out of all that? He has neither hit consistently enough or shown enough behind the plate to warrant a permanent spot on the roster.

That certainly was the Nationals’ point of view this year, one in which they twice optioned a slumping Adams to Triple-A Rochester, including for the season’s final six weeks. The 28-year-old finished with an unimpressive .224/.292/.336 slash line, with five doubles, a triple, two homers and only eight RBIs. In the field, he ranked in the bottom third of all major league catchers in blocking, framing and pop time, and he threw out only three of 34 basestealers.

“I’ve said this before: Riley, when he consistently hits the ball, he can really help us against left-handed pitching,” manager Davey Martinez said after Adams’ second demotion this summer. “And he’s working on his catching again.”

It was a regression season for Adams, though, and that doesn’t seem to bode well for him in the bigger picture. It raises some real questions about his status heading into the winter.

Adams is now out of options, so the Nats can’t send him to Triple-A again without first exposing him to waivers and taking him off the 40-man roster. He’s also going to eligible for arbitration for the first time in his career, which means his salary will go up from the $750,900 he made this year. (MLB Trade Rumors projects a $1.1 million salary for him in 2025.)

It’s possible the Nationals could non-tender Adams next month, making him a free agent and clearing a 40-man roster spot for a prospect who needs to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft or a potential free agent signing. Even if they do tender him a contract, the Nats could find themselves confronting a decision next spring if he doesn’t play well enough to lock up a spot on the Opening Day roster.

When Adams was at Triple-A this season, his spot in the big leagues was occupied by Drew Millas. Club officials have long been intrigued by the 26-year-old’s catching abilities, and he did rate better than Adams in each metric, with an above-average pop time and average framing and blocking numbers.

But while he did produce good offensive numbers at Rochester (.311/.361/.518 in 60 games), Millas didn’t do much at the plate in the major leagues this season (.246/.306/.316 in 20 games). It’s admittedly a small sample, and he has yet to get a chance to play on a consistent basis in D.C., but what we have seen so far hasn’t been particularly eye-opening (aside from his surprisingly good speed for a catcher).

“He’s swinging the bat a little bit more this time than he has in the past,” Martinez said in September, “which we’ve talked about a lot in the past – because he’s had such good numbers in the minor leagues – about coming up here and giving himself a chance to swing. It seems like every time he’s up here, he’s hitting with two strikes. Be ready to hit. He’s done a better job of that this stint up here right now.”

But Millas is hardly a sure thing at this point, and there’s no guarantee he will become a productive major league hitter. Club officials like him, yes, but he was never highly rated in any prospect ranking either before or after his acquisition from the Athletics in the 2021 trade of Josh Harrison and Yan Gomes.

So, what’s the state of the Nationals’ backup catcher position? They essentially have three options heading into the winter. They can stick with Adams and hope he bounces back from a rough year. They can give Millas a more serious look and find out if he can deliver enough to stick around long-term. Or they can seek help from outside the organization and sign a veteran No. 2 catcher who could perhaps challenge for the No. 1 job if Keibert Ruiz continues to struggle.