Good catch: Newcomer Lobaton has quickly fit in behind plate (with Fister note)

When they acquired catcher Jose Lobaton from the Rays on Feb. 13, the Nationals added an experienced backup backstop with good defensive skills who brought with him a reputation for preparedness and working hard. The Nationals wanted someone with substantial major league experience ready to strap on the gear in case something happened to injury-addled starter Wilson Ramos.

Ramos injured his left hand in the season's first game and had surgery earlier this week to remove the hamate bone. He'll be lost for four to six weeks, maybe more.

That thrust Lobaton into the starting lineup and made general manager Mike Rizzo's acquisition as spring camp opened look like a shrewd one. But it also put the 29-year-old Lobaton onto a sharp learning curve that began in the bullpens at the team's spring training complex in Viera, Fla.

Lobaton has only had about seven weeks to learn a new pitching staff. That would be a challenge for a guy not expected to play regularly, much less a newcomer who arrived at Space Coast Stadium and immediately began playing catch-up.

"It's hard when you're the new guy and you're coming in and it's a staff you don't know," said manager Matt Williams before the Nationals hosted the Braves in their home opener Friday. "We got a chance to get him with our main guys a lot during the course of spring training to get him accustomed. He's blocked the ball well, he's certainly put together good at-bats.

"He's here because he has experience catching, certainly last year (with) 70-plus games as a starter, 100 games total. And that's the reason we felt it appropriate to bring him over. Because in a situation like we have with Wilson, if we run into something like that, we've got somebody who's accustomed to being back there every day. He's been really good."

Advanced metrics suggest that Lobaton is one of the game's better pitch-framers, and the way he receives the baseball forged a quick bond between the new catchers and his new pitchers. Lefty Gio Gonzalez raved about how Lobaton worked behind the plate in his Tuesday start against the Mets.

"Those little intricacies within the game can mean the game for you sometimes. ... A catcher can really help a pitcher, selling a strike to the umpire," Williams said.

With Lobaton the starting catcher for the foreseeable future, the Nationals chose to summon switch-hitting Sandy Leon from Double-A Harrisburg to back him up and leave Jhonatan Solano at Triple-A Syracuse, where he can catch every day.

The Nationals briefly toyed with the idea of bringing three catchers north on their 25-man opening day roster, and Leon would have been the third backstop had they gone that route.

"He throws really well, he blocks really well," Williams said of Leon. "... We want to keep Jhonatan playing every day, and that's important for his development and for our organizational development. ... It fits perfect that (Leon is) here now."

Note: General manager Mike Rizzo said injured right-hander Doug Fister exercised his strained right lat before the game and, barring any complications, should be ready to begin a throwing program "any day now."