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Nationals Could Hit Trade Market This Winter to Solve Clear Catching Issue

Originally posted on Washington Nationals on SI
By Brad Wakai | Last updated Oct 1, 2025 9:46 PM ET

The Washington Nationals are now officially in a new era of their franchise.

With Paul Toboni introduced as the team's newest president of baseball operations on Oct. 1, it will be a busy offseason as he tries to set things up in a way that reflects how he wants the Nationals to be run while also trying to put the best product on the field in 2026.

The latter part is what most in the fanbase care about at this stage. Washington disappointed in a major way this season, and it will be up to the new organization to ignite hope that this current group of young players can get this franchise back into contention.

An area of the roster that Toboni will have to address is catcher, as the Nationals finished the 2025 season with the lowest fWAR among all Major League Baseball teams this year at 0.2.

Nationals Could Attack Trade Market to Address Catcher

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Understanding that a massive change needs to be made since Keibert Ruiz no longer appears to be a viable long-term option, Paul Cubbage of Federal Baseball thinks attacking the trade market should be a solution they pursue to solve their issue.

He believes Washington will have to get a bit creative when it comes to acquiring one since other teams around the MLB know how hard it is to have a durable catcher that is good at both the fielding and hitting aspects of the game.

"The Nats' best chance to strike is with a contending team undergoing a roster crunch to their 40-man and cannot afford to add a young backstop to it. The Nats give up some younger prospects of their own, and in exchange get a possible solution at a block hole of a position for them. They should also look at catching prospects on teams that already have their long-term catcher, such as Dalton Rushing from the Dodgers or Harry Ford from the Mariners," he wrote.

That would be an interesting way to go about things. Pursuing former high-end prospects who don't have a clear spot on their current teams would be a way to add top talent that is ready to produce at the big league level immediately.

One thing is abundantly clear, though: the Nationals cannot keep going with their current approach at catcher. Ruiz was one of the worst catchers in the league this season on both offense and defense, and the backups of Riley Adams and Drew Millas didn't do much to lift this team.

How Washington goes about fixing this major issue will be seen, but it could be something that happens as soon as this winter.