Keibert Ruiz set to make Nationals debut on Monday

The centerpiece of the Max Scherzer trade is set to make his debut for the Washington Nationals. 

The Nationals will call up catcher Keibert Ruiz from Triple-A on Monday to play against the Philadelphia Phillies, the team announced Sunday. Ruiz, the 13th-rated prospect in baseball, arrives to the District after Washington acquired him from the Los Angeles Dodgers last month at the trade deadline. 

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo previously described Ruiz, 23, as “the main cog that we were trying to get” when Washington made the decision to ship Scherzer and star shortstop Trea Turner to the Dodgers in July. Washington received four players back as it looked to rebuild its prospect pipeline — centered around Ruiz, the switch-hitting catcher who MLB Pipeline described as “one of the premier contact hitters in the Minors.”

Since arriving to the Nationals’ farm system, Ruiz has hit .308 with five home runs and 14 RBI in 20 games for the Rochester Red Wings. The call up comes amid a Ruiz hot streak as the slugger has had four of those five home runs in the last week. 

On Monday, he’ll likely catch starter Josiah Gray — another prospect acquired in the Dodgers deal. This will not be Ruiz’s MLB debut, however. The catcher appeared in six games for Los Angeles earlier this season and two games in 2020. 

Washington will have to make a corresponding roster move to make room for Ruiz on the roster, though rosters are set to expand to 28 players on Sept. 1. 

“We just want him to have good consistent at-bats,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said of Ruiz. “The biggest thing that we’ll talk about is stay up the middle of the field and take his walks, accept his walks.”

Martinez said he’ll talk with Rizzo to determine who the Nationals will send down to the minors. He added it was possible that Washington keeps three catchers on the 26-man roster. Over the last month, Washington has used a tandem of Riley Adams and Tres Barrera to catch behind the plate in wake of trading veteran Yan Gomes.

After blowing up their roster at the deadline — besides the Dodgers deal, the Nationals also shipped out Kyle Schwarber, Jon Lester and other veterans in various trades — Washington received a total haul of 12 prospects. Two years removed from winning the World Series, the Nationals made the moves in an effort to restock the team’s farm system, which had been depleted in recent years as a result of numerous “win-now” trades. 

In the weeks since, four have already appeared in an MLB game for the Nationals, with Ruiz set to be the fifth.

“We had a decade of excellence, and we’re going to take a small step backwards to take leaps forward,” Rizzo said last month, “and I think we have things in place that are going to expedite that process, and we’re going to be a tough team to play in the very near future.”