WASHINGTON – The catching situation for the Nationals looks a lot different than it did less than three months ago – or even two weeks ago.
The Nationals traded veteran Yan Gomes at the trade deadline in late July and acquired young backstops Keibert Ruiz from the Dodgers and Riley Adams from the Blue Jays in two other deals. Veteran Alex Avila retired after his last game earlier this month and has made a nice transition already to broadcasting.
There is much more depth at the position and that might not be good news for Israel Pineda, who was signed by the Nationals and began his pro career in 2017 in the Gulf Coast League.