The Catching Pecking Order is in Flux
By Forensicane
The Nationals advanced through spring training with three “experienced” catchers and one “hopeful” on the active roster, one (Keibert Ruiz) well underperforming expectations and with a long-term contract obligation, one (Drew Millas) coming off a broken finger and combining offensive skills and hustle with occasional cringe defense. Another (Riley Adams) scored a modest major/minor contract to park at AAA with power and competent defense as a fallback option as his strikeouts and sub-Mendoza hitting could no longer be accommodated.
The “hopeful” carried with him the most earnest of aspirations. Harry Ford was a darling of those who follow prospect lists, and to his credit, showed plate patience, improving defense, and even emerging power (albeit PCL power) in 2025. Newly-arrived Paul Toboni had laid out priorities for the 2025 off-season, and “catching help” was (not surprisingly) at the top of the list. The Mariners wanted Jose A. Ferrer Jr., who had flashed some for the 2025 Nationals. With a Big Dumper in front of him, the M’s shipped Harry Ford to the Nationals. There were those prospect watchers who suggested Ford was more of a lemon, but those naysayers were quieted when Ford busted out a power surge in Marlins Park for the World Baseball Classic, as a star of the Great Britain team.
No one would then have envisioned Ford’s miserable start with the Nationals – and even worse, the AAA Red Wings. Ford now features a .211/.339/.279 line, with strikeouts up and walks down and power abandoned in Miami. To make matters worse, Ford has thrown out only 15% of baserunners, wherein he was much closer to 25% last year. He has not caught a game since May 22, although he has played at DH.
On the plus side, Ford has shown signs of warming up with the weather, with 16 hits in his last 61 at bats, 17 walks in his last 18 games, as well as his first 2026 home run. Was he just catching a breath in Nats spring training and at year’s beginning? Did the WBC burn him out? Certainly, Ford deserves some credit for the Rochester team being in first place; the Red Wings won the last six games Ford has caught. Moreover, he has presided over beautiful starts from Luis Perales and others, as well as the quiet but rapid re-emergence of Chandler Champlain with a succession of exquisite starts and Riley Cornelio shoves. So it’s too early to throw in the towel on Harry Ford, and with so much that Toboni invested, Ford will get the kind of runway reserved for Elijah Green – if he needs it.
Of course, the Nationals were not counting on the current re-awakening of Keibert Ruiz’ productive offense. In addition, Ruiz has earned the praise of his pitching staff for their successes on the way to .500. But Ruiz has had early season tears before, including last year, that faded within weeks. Plus (or minus), he is showing no real control of the basepaths in 2026. Moreover, beating out Drew Millas for the starting job at this point is hardly a major achievement, given Millas’ early season sputters. Thus, the door remains unlocked, if not ajar, for Ford and one of those catchers at levels below him to kick open and take over.
“One of those catchers” was really supposed to be Caleb Lomavita. The highly touted and hyped college product and 2024 high draft choice was the statement the Nationals made that they were hedging on their long-term bet on Ruiz. Lomavita started competently in the lower minors after signing and hopes only rose with his being one of the cast of the Fredericksburg Nationals 2024 championship run.
Since then, however, Lomavita has underachieved to the point of serious reconsideration of his prospects. He started 2025 at Wilmington and showed the ability to get on base, but with little punch at the notoriously right-handed hitter-unfriendly home park. A late season promotion to Harrisburg showed better power production, adding some renewed interest as he looked ahead to the upper minors. He did throw out nearly 25% of would-be base-stealers but had 8 passed balls and 21 errors on the season. The whispers began even before 2026 about Lomavita being a “bat-first” catcher (or other position) as opposed to the athletic and field-manager catcher that ticketed him for the 2024 draft’s first round. Still only 23 (the same age as Harry Ford), Lomavita has unfortunately started slowly at the plate in Harrisburg this year and has muddled through two months with neither punch or the on base skills he had showcased in college and in Fredericksburg. But his catching numbers are downright unplayable – 13 errors in 32 games and only 7 caught stealing among 64 tries. Something is wrong, or something is fading, or both.
At the same time, Maxwell Romero Jr. has re-awakened in his second go round with Harrisburg. Romero has always had power and a clutch bat, but this year he had a torrid start to May that included cutting his strikeouts in half and cemented his bat in the daily lineup. The Senators are 13-6 in the 19 games he has caught, and Romero has made no errors, has only one passed ball, and has thrown out 20 percent of baserunners – a tick below his earlier career. Romero is taking over more and more of the catching at Harrisburg, and rightly so. Romero recovered from a 4 for 27 skid to swatting as he did in early May, and now sports a .281/.397/.596 line for the year.
The Senators are not catching Romero on back to back days, and Romero is still striking out all too frequently, nearly once in three at bats. However, Rochester is now part of his discussion rather than Lomavita’s. Riley Adams returned from a long layoff in early May to split time with Tres Barrera. However, neither is blocking the path for Romero.
Adams is well known to us. After being inactive for much of May, he is now handling most of Rochester’s catching load at a time that the team is winning. He hasn’t made an error as a AAA catcher since 2021, which is at least 66 games, so that’s positive. Adams’ bat is not-productive this year, lacking even the power that one expects from the big lug. So he may be dinged up. Barrera’s bat became more productive after being little more than a seat warmer until mid-May. As Ford sits in the shop, Barrera is getting more game action. Surely his experience has contributed to Rochester’s winning ways. However, Barrera cannot control the running game and is closing in on the end of his decent if faded run.
Kevin Bazzell was a footnote to the 2024 Lomavita supplemental first round draft choice. But Bazzell came out of college as a highly regarded catching prospect with an advanced bat and pop. When placed on the same stage as Lomavita in Fredericksburg, it was Lomavita who shined a bit brighter in 2024. Lomavita beat out Bazzell for the 2025 promotion to Wilmington, while Bazzell stayed behind in Fredericksburg as the starter in low A. The result? Bazzell led all the minor leagues with 59 runners caught stealing, in 76 games caught. But Bazzell also experienced a downturn at the plate, and particularly a dramatic loss of pop – with only 8 extra base hits (doubles) in 335 plate appearances. He still maintained excellent plate discipline – only 32 strikeouts all year – but had come out of college only a year earlier with a reputation for thump in the bat.
Things did not get any more encouraging for Bazzell with the start of 2026, when, after he was promoted to be the primary catcher at Wilmington, Bazzell went out with an injury on April 11 while hitting a paltry .056. Since returning on May 7, however, and eased into the swing, Bazzell had 10 hits in his first 20 at bats, including two home runs. His defense has struggled unexpectedly, with eight passed balls and only 2 of 22 baserunners erased. But coming off injury, Bazzell gives reason for optimism on both sides of the field. He has thrown out 8 of the last 28 baserunners and Wilmington is winning with him as the primary starting catcher. Bazzell’s bat came alive as well, with a red-hot May and with 21 hits in 57 at bats since his return. His stock is rising with the prospect of his returning to a profile as a two-way catching prospect with excellent plate discipline, growing into the position as a converted third baseman with a cannon arm but great athleticism. Whether punch returns for the right-handed hitting Bazzell may not resolve until his inevitable promotion to Harrisburg. His two errors in 22 games catching are a big upgrade from Lomavita’s defense, although his eight passed balls are not welcome.
Below A+, there is no one who currently changes the discussion of the future of catching in Washington. Sir Jamison Jones has flashed tools (such as a three HR game) and is only 19. He has a long way to go to catch up offensively in Fredericksburg, and it’s early in the season. As for pecking order, Sir Jamison Jones is currently irrelevant. Nick Hollified, a college draftee in Fredericksburg, is solid defensively and handling the majority of starts for one of the best teams in all the minor leagues. Hollifield may otherwise be known as the catcher who kept Boston Smith off the field last year – and perhaps made him available for the Curtis Mead trade. Offensively, however, Hollifield has taken a big downturn this year and so he’s irrelevant in the bigger picture.
As for the recently kicked-off FCL Nats, Feldi Tavarez elicits a yawn with his anemic 2025 offensive output. But as an 18-year-old in the FCL last year, Tavarez threw out nearly 50% of runners trying to steal, with a respectable .983 fielding percentage over 28 games. Tavarez was off to a more auspicious start at the plate in 2026, but faded. Stepping up from literally oblivion has been 23 year old Brady Cerkownyk, a 2023 Tigers 15th round draftee that the Nationals snapped up after the Tigers released him in April. Cerkownyk has not only taken over as a lineup regular, he is batting cleanup and flashing a .357/.472/.643 line in 14 games since joining the team. He is, of course, older than Hollifield and has repeated the FCL. The more known quantity backstopping the FCL is Daniel Hernandez, whose higher bonus has fueled his insertion into pundit prospect lists. Although he showed nothing to be excited about in the DSL last year, he was pushed to West Palm, where he is off to a slow but barely-serviceable start as a competent backstop. At his age, he remains relevant to his advocates in the pundit world.
Keibert Ruiz is under control for awhile. Whether his promising start will last will be more evidenced by draft time. Max Romero and Kevin Bazzell are the names to watch behind him. But given the modest depth of the system at lower levels, and the absence of a star in the system, top catching may be a high priority in the upcoming draft. The Nationals’ regime has successfully scouted catching and can return to that formula in 2026 at draft time.
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