Yan Gomes and Kurt Suzuki shared the catching duties (pretty much exclusively) in 2019-20, but the Washington Nationals let Suzuki walk this past offseason, and signed a veteran, Alex Avila, to handle the backup duties in D.C. Gomes said early in Spring Training he knew Avila about as well as he’d known Suzuki before both ended up with the Nationals, from playing against the one-time Detroit Tigers’ backstop when both were in the AL Central, but he was looking forward to getting to know him better.
“As soon as we signed him I tried to get in contact with him,” Gomes said, “and just kind of get to know him, kind of get that little awkward stage of the first week of spring out of the way.