has gotten worse every season<\/a> since he signed an eight-year extension ahead of the 2023 campaign.<\/p>\nAdams has been solid in his limited role with the Nationals since coming over ahead of the trade deadline in the Brad Hand deal. But he owns a slash line of .215\/.291\/.361 with an OPS+ that’s 16 points below the league average of 100. Millas has provided an offensive burst with an OPS+ of 108. But he’s only appeared in 49 total big league games, so the sample size is small.<\/p>\n
All of that is to say, Washington should be eyeing some options on the open market this offseason, and someone they should really take a hard look at is James McCann.<\/p>\n
![\"James]( "\\"James")
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Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
First, McCann would be a veteran leader in this clubhouse to guide the young players. He was a well-respected figure for the Baltimore Orioles during his time there, and after he wasn’t retained ahead of this past season, there were many inside and outside the organization who questioned that decision.<\/p>\n
The 2019 All-Star has been reduced to a backup role the last few years, but he proved he still has some juice in his bat this past season with the Arizona Diamondbacks. After signing a major league deal with them in the summer, he slashed .260\/.324\/.431 with five home runs, 17 RBIs and an OPS+ of 107 across 42 games played.<\/p>\n
While that’s a small sample size and the last time he posted an OPS+ figure above the league average mark was during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, he would be a valuable backup option for Washington to have on their roster in case Ruiz continues to struggle and the other two aren’t providing much offense.<\/p>\n
![\"James]( "\\"James")
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Rob Schumacher\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The good news is that McCann isn’t going to cost a ton to sign this winter. Spotrac has his market value around the one-year, $6 million mark. For a backup catcher who is going to provide offense and veteran leadership, the Nationals should not have a problem paying that number.<\/p>\n
While there’s a chance some more high-profile catchers become available this offseason who would be splashier signings, what McCann can provide this club at that price point would be a great addition as they try to get things back on track and figure out their catching position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest weaknesses for the Washington Nationals heading into 2026 is at catcher. After Jorge Alfaro…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-265863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}