Reetz making big strides in less than one full year with Nationals

Nationals catching prospect Jakson Reetz is making nice gains nearing his first full year in the organization. The 6-foot-1, 195 lb. backstop from Norris, Neb., was selected in the third round of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft

Nationals catching coordinator Michael Barrett has seen the acceleration by the 19-year-old Reetz firsthand. Barrett said Reetz looked the part of a catcher, offensively and defensively.

"I saw him in the summer last year and he did a phenomenal job," Barrett said. "I thought that he made some huge strides last year as a catcher. After seeing him develop last year, I thought he was right where he needed to be. Had he not improved at the same speed, I might have thought something else."

Beginning this season at the club's training facility in Viera, Fla., Reetz has played very well.

"Wait till you see him - he has gotten even better," Barrett said. "He has gotten even better the last two weeks. I just went down and saw him and I told him. Sometimes it's good to back off and then come back, whereas I saw him every day last year. He continues to evolve."

With the Rookie-level Gulf Coast Nationals last season, Reetz hit .274 in 43 games.

"He's a special player with lots of tools and he's learning how to catch," Barrett said. "He's come a long, long way. Anybody that doubted him a year ago, I promise you, wouldn't now after the improvements he made in his game in such a short period amount of time, not even a full year in professional baseball. The stuff that he's doing is shocking."

A major part of Reetz's development was being able to work with the other catchers in the system while in Florida in February and March.

"He has some great guys to watch within the system," Barrett said. "He gets the opportunity to see (Pedro) Severino and (Spencer) Kieboom, two different guys. He takes a little bit from (each). And then you got Raudy (Read) and (Jorge) Tillero.

"Even (Steven) LeRud and (Dan) Butler this spring. He has some fine examples to work off of. We couldn't have a better catching situation. For me, I think that's increased his learning curve and it's helped him a lot."

Barrett said the depth chart when he was coming up with the Expos was Darrin Fletcher, Chris Widger, (Nationals current third base coach) Bobby Henley, Barrett and Brian Schneider.

He sees that same kind of camaraderie building within the system today.

"We prided ourselves on our unison, and working together, sharing information and doing those things," Barrett said. "What I try to instill in these guys now is working together, being a unit and helping each other. It's going to help all of their development.

"The better Jack can get the more he pushes everyone from the bottom up."

For more on Severino, click here.