The Nationals’ decision to tender contracts to all of their arbitration-eligible players Friday was something of a surprise. Given the new regime now running baseball operations, it stood to reason there would be at least one or two non-tenders, signaling a desire to make at least some changes to the roster this group inherited.

President of baseball operations Paul Toboni went a step further, though, when he also agreed to terms with Riley Adams on a 2026 contract, avoiding arbitration. Adams’ salary isn’t known yet, but that move all but solidified his return next season, which would seem to say a lot about the state of the organization’s catching corps.

Adams, 29, had another difficult season at the plate. While playing a career-high 83 games and taking a career-high 286 plate appearances, he batted only .186 with a career-worst .308 slugging percentage. He did show improvement on the defensive side of things, but his offensive production was down from each of the last two seasons despite far more opportunities for playing time than he had ever received.

Bringing back Adams for something in the range of $1 million-$1.5 million isn’t that noteworthy of a move. What is noteworthy is what this decision suggests about Toboni’s overall view of the catching position.

Adams is a perfectly capable backup, one who typically has caught about 40-45 games per season while Keibert Ruiz started the other 115-120 games. But Ruiz played only 68 games this season, only two after June 23, when he was struck in the head by a foul ball while watching from the dugout at San Diego’s Petco Park.

Diagnosed with a concussion a few days later, Ruiz briefly returned to the active roster July 4-5 but took another foul tip off his mask, went back on the 7-day concussion IL and never returned. It was a hugely disappointing season for the 27-year-old, and one that left the organization to confront a number of questions about the only player on the team who has a long-term contract.

Ruiz signed that eight-year, $50 million extension in March 2023, on the heels of a solid first full season in D.C. He went on to post even better offensive numbers that season, with career-highs in doubles (24), homers (18), RBIs (67), batting average (.260) and OPS (.717).

He hasn’t come close to duplicating those numbers since, even when healthy. Ruiz slashed a mere .229/.260/.359 in 2024, then slashed .247/.277/.318 this season before suffering his concussion. All along, his defense has rated as below-average.

Ruiz is signed for $5 million a piece in 2026 and 2027, $7 million in 2028, then $9 million a piece in 2029 and 2030. The club holds a $12 million option on him for 2031 and a $14 million option on him for 2032 (when he’ll be 33). That’s not really a major expenditure in the grand scheme of things, but for a franchise that hasn’t signed anybody else to anything more than a two-year deal since Stephen Strasburg following the 2019 World Series, it’s a lot. In other words, it’s not the kind of contract the Nationals are likely to eat, even if Ruiz continues to perform poorly.

Given that – not to mention the obvious health question that still lingers around Ruiz – there was a line of thinking Toboni might look to bolster the catching position by acquiring a more proven player who could at least split the job with Ruiz and potentially take over as the No. 1 guy if he either struggles or is physically unable to play.

In retaining Adams, though, the Nats seem to be saying they intend to enter 2026 with their catching corps intact. Ruiz will remain the starter, with Adams backing him up and Drew Millas (who still has a minor league option) likely returning to Triple-A Rochester and on-call whenever needed.

That puts added pressure on Ruiz to not only prove he’s back to full health again, but to prove he can be a more productive player at long last and live up to the terms of his contract. And it puts added pressure on new manager Blake Butera, new catching coach Bobby Wilson and the still-unknown new hitting coach to help Ruiz (and Adams, for that matter) make real strides in every aspect of his game.

It’s theoretically still possible the Nationals could acquire another veteran catcher. Maybe they have reason to believe Ruiz won’t be able to return from the concussion and will bring in someone else to start ahead of Adams. Maybe they have plans to move Ruiz to first base or the DH position, opening a slot for another catcher. Or maybe there’s some other trade in the works that will help clear things up.

But for now, we should probably take Friday’s move as the first hint of evidence what Toboni and his staff think of the Nats’ catching corps. Which is to say, they seem to still believe in the group as-is.