Kebert-Lewis announced an eight-year, allegedly $50 million contract extension with the Washington Nationals at a press conference on Saturday, working with all the other young Nationals the organization has amassed to see what’s next. said he is looking forward to trying to build a championship capable team in the nation’s capital.
“I’m really excited to be here for a long time,” Lewis, 24, told reporters.
“I feel like we’ve made a good group. All these young people, Mackenzie Gore, Josiah Gray, and all the young people coming out of the minor leagues, they also felt like they had to take responsibility, and for this team to win. I feel that I have to do my job in the future.”
The idea of taking responsibility and being DC’s leader was a theme Catcher reiterated throughout the press at the FITTEAM ballpark in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“Especially for my position, catcher,” he explained. do. “
“The Day We Met,” Lewis manager Davey Martinez said of the catchers the Knots acquired on their 2021 contracts, which sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to Los Angeles. dodgers On the trade deadline, he said, “The first words out of his mouth were ‘I’m here for work. I’m here to get better. That’s it.So he was great.He really has.And I know his teammates look up to him.He has to work with Henry. I feel sorry for him because [Blanco] for a long time. “
Blanco, of course, is Washington’s catching and strategy coach, tasked with helping develop Lewis and other relatively young catchers in the organization like Riley Adams and Israel Pineda.
Lewis thanked all the coaches who helped him get to the point where the Nationals wanted him on a long-term contract.
“I am very grateful to this team,” he said.
Asked about the risks of signing a long-term contract with a young catcher with relatively little track record, general manager Mike Rizzo said Lewis is taking risks, too.
“We thought about it long and hard and these deals got done — these deals got done — the best deal you could do is [when] Both sides are a little uneasy, you know what I mean? Lizzo asked rhetorically. “When there’s a long-term contract at the table, there’s a little bit of risk for the team. And there’s a little bit of risk for the players to be locked up for years. If you’re a little apprehensive, I think you’ve reached a good, fair deal, and that’s what we’ve discussed here.
“We talked about different terms and conditions, but Keevert wanted the longest deal we talked about.”
Now the club has a lot of young, talented players like catchers, and the GM didn’t rule out the possibility of getting them to sign more to long-term contracts like the one they gave the backstop to. .
“I don’t think there’s a limit to what we can pursue and what we can do organically,” said Rizzo. “Again, here are the details: We sign not just the player, but the person. I think we have a lot of candidates that fit that description. Just this clubhouse.” But for the youth, the energy, the excitement, I’m on top of something special…the minor league clubhouse.”
