Riley

Adams

Adams was a serviceable backup for the Nationals in 2023 but took a step back offensively last season, slashing just .224/.292/.336 with two home runs in 130 plate appearances. He also grades out poorly as a defensive catcher, so he’s likely best served as organizational depth behind the plate.

The move was announced over the weekend but is now official. The second overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft is hitting .272/.343/.446 with 21 doubles, six triples, 13 homers, 68 RBI, and 25 steals for Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester during his first full pro season. Crews is a plus runner who makes good swing decisions and has the easy power to drive balls out of the yard. He has struggled with spin at times in his brief pro career, so there’s no telling how quickly he’ll hit the ground running, but the raw ability is immense. Riley Adams was optioned in a corresponding move.

The Nationals needed to clear a spot on their active roster for Dylan Crews to make his highly anticipated debut on Monday, and dropping their extra catcher was an easy way to accomplish that. Adams will continue to serve as extra catching depth at the Triple-A level.

The catcher has been strong of late, hitting .291 in 15 games in July with three home runs, six runs, and 10 RBI. He is back on the radar in one-catcher formats but will sit on Wednesday with Riley Adams serving as the starting catcher.

It’s a routine day off for Ruiz with Riley Adams stepping in as the starting catcher. Ruiz has started to heat up at the plate over the last three weeks, hitting .295 in 16 games with two home runs, nine RBI, and seven runs. He also has just a 4.6 percent strikeout rate over that span and has re-emerged as an option in one-catcher formats.

The 28-year-old backstop has already appeared in 25 games for the Nationals this season, slashing .215/.281/.354 with a pair of homers and six RBI in 89 plate appearances. It’s not much, but it’s more production than they were getting from Drew Millas, which is why the team most likely made the switch again. He’ll function as the primary backup behind Keibert Ruiz for the time being.

Adams has struggled with the bat and not seen much playing time as of late, so he’ll head back to Triple-A to see more regular at-bats. Drew Millas is up to be the backup backstop to Keibert Ruiz.

Adams is finally getting some extra playing time with Keibert Ruiz on the IL and has hit .306/.316/.583 in 38 plate appearances. He also blew Ruiz away with an .807 OPS while serving as a strict backup last year. The body of work suggests that he deserves some DH time when Ruiz is healthy, but we’ll see if that materializes. Last year, the Nationals used Ruiz as a DH on 16 occasions and put Adams there just once.

Ruiz will miss his fourth straight game due to illness on Saturday afternoon. It’ll be Riley Adams continuing to handle the catching duties in his absence.

It didn’t take long for the 27-year-old backstop to get in on the action. In just his third at-bat of the season, Adams drilled a fastball from Roansy Contreras to left center that went 427 feet. He’s going to split time with Keibert Ruiz behind the plate, but should still see at-bats from DH this season.