Wieters always thought Nats "would be a good fit for me"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - For anyone who watched him get drafted by the Orioles, debut with the Orioles and become a four-time All-Star with the Orioles, the sight this morning of Matt Wieters wearing a red No. 32 jersey and a curly W cap had to be jarring.

For Wieters, whose signing with the Nationals finally was made official, it was a bit awkward, as well. And yet there was a certain comfort level joining a franchise that has never felt entirely foreign to him.

"I always thought Washington was a team that would be a good fit for me," he said.

Several years of speculation and one long offseason of waiting culminated today in the formal introduction of Wieters as the Nationals' new catcher. He had agreed to terms on a one-year, $10.5 million contract (with a player option for 2018) on Tuesday and was at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches on Thursday while completing his physical, but not until this morning did he have a locker and a uniform emblazoned with his name.

For Wieters, it was a welcome relief to finally be donning any uniform, given the long and unusual offseason he endured. A full-fledged free agent for the first time - he accepted Baltimore's $15.8 million qualifying offer last winter - he was dealt a significant blow Nov. 1 when in a freak accident at home, a five-gallon glass water jug shattered and cut up his left forearm.

Wieters admitted he was initially scared something serious had happened, but doctors quickly confirmed he had suffered no nerve or artery damage, and thus everything would heal in time. His baseball offseason, however, had to be put on hold.

"Everything was going to be fine eventually, but it just slowed things down because I couldn't do any baseball activities really for about 10 weeks," he said. "So it's tough finding a team when you can't do anything baseball-related."

The incident delayed Wieters' ability to negotiate with potential employers, and so he found himself still without a job as pitchers and catchers and then position players began reporting to sites across Florida and Arizona.

"Once spring training gets going and you get into February, it's a little awkward feeling of not being with the guys, with the team," he said. "I think that's what you get itchy about more than anything: sitting at home and not being able to go in the training room and talk with the guys and see how they're doing and kind of get focused towards the season. It all worked out eventually."

The Nationals had seemingly addressed their catching need in early December when they acquired Derek Norris from the Padres, but Wieters never discounted the possibility of winding up in D.C.

"It's something in baseball that's always crazy like that," he said. "You never know where it'll be a fit, and really throughout the offseason it was kind of jumping around, team here, team here, team there. And it's a lot of hearsay when you go through most of the offseason. Once we were able to finally start getting into talking with teams, Washington came back as kind of a team that was interested and thought I could help them. And I thought it was a good fit for me, as always."

Wieters faces several challenges between now and opening day. He not only must learn a new pitching staff but also a new league, having spent his entire career to date in the American League.

He plans to spend probably a week getting into baseball shape and catching as many bullpen sessions as he can before making his game debut behind the plate.

"It's definitely enough time," he said. "As a catcher, I'd love to have as much as possible, but at the same time with the staff here and the starting staff here, these guys have been doing it for a while. They have the pedigree. They know what they're doing. Being able to kind of just listen to them and hear from them on how they like to pitch will help me out a lot."

Wieters caught an average of 131 games from 2010-2013, second-most in the sport behind Yadier Molina, but his workload has diminished since, in large part due to the Tommy John surgery he had on his right elbow in 2014. He caught 117 games last season, 111 of them starts.

Now that he's in the National League, he won't have many opportunities to take days off from catching but remain in the lineup as designated hitter. But Wieters, who said he felt fully recovered from the surgery last summer, believes he can return to his previous catching workload.

"I feel great physically, and I'm excited to get back to what I did before the surgery," he said. "I like being able to get in a routine and get in a habit, and the catching every-other-day and the two days off, or two days on and one day off, it wasn't what I liked doing. I like being back there and catching as much as possible."

As for criticisms that he's among the league's worst pitch framers, Wieters noted that he's constantly trying to improve his defensive game but that he doesn't get obsessed with any particular stat.

"As a catcher, you always want to get as many strikes for your pitcher as possible," he said. "And I've always tried to work for that. But if I get too involved with what the statistics say instead of focusing on what I can control, then it can slow me down a little bit."

To clear space on the 40-man roster for Wieters, the Nationals placed first baseman Jose Marmolejos on the 60-day disabled list with a left forearm strain. For now, Norris and the rest of the team's catching corps - they now have six on the 40-man roster, plus non-roster invitee Jhonatan Solano in camp - remain intact.

Reliever Koda Glover, meanwhile, gave up his jersey number to Wieters. Glover is now wearing No. 30.