2:00pm: The Nationals have announced the signing. Alfaro jumps right onto the big league roster, and Stubbs has been optioned to Triple-A Rochester to create a 26-man roster spot. Millas was transferred to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man roster spot. Unsurprisingly, that indicates that the fractured finger Millas suffered last week will end his season.
12:45pm: The Nationals have agreed to a major league deal with veteran catcher Jorge Alfaro, reports Andrew Golden of the Washington Post. The CAA client had been playing with the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate but opted out of his minor league contract yesterday to become a free agent.
The 32-year-old Alfaro hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2023. He appeared in 82 games and tallied 326 plate appearances with the Brewers’ Nashville affiliate in 2025, hitting .244/.285/.430 with 15 home runs and a dozen steals. Alfaro walked in only 3.4% of his plate appearances with Milwaukee’s Triple-A club and also fanned at an alarming 36.5% clip.
Despite those troubling rate stats, Alfaro will get the opportunity to return to the big leagues with the Nats. Washington has lost both Keibert Ruiz (concussion) and Drew Millas (fractured finger) to the injured list in recent weeks. Riley Adams and CJ Stubbs are currently handling catching duty in D.C.
In parts of eight major league seasons, Alfaro is a .253/.302/.393 hitter (86 wRC+) through 1710 trips to the plate. He’s drawn negative framing and blocking grades in that time but has controlled the running game well, as evidenced by a career 27.5% caught-stealing rate.
Alfaro has spent most of his big league time with the Marlins, who acquired him alongside Sixto Sanchez in the trade sending J.T. Realmuto to the division-rival Phillies. Miami hoped that in Alfaro — a consensus top-100 prospect at the time of the swap — they’d secured a long-term answer behind the plate. He was indeed a regular in Miami for three seasons, but Alfaro’s bat never lived up to his prospect billing, and he’s since bounced around the league on a series of minor league contracts.
There’s little enough time left in the current season that Alfaro, who has 5.133 years of major league service, can’t reach six years before the calendar runs out. As such, he’ll technically remain controllable into 2026 via arbitration, although barring an unexpectedly productive September, it seems likelier that he’ll be outrighted at season’s end and again become a minor league free agent.
I remember quite a few people were saying how badly the Phillies lost this trade after Sixto’s first handful of starts.
I think that it is hard for fans to be detached observers, especially when it comes to major trades. If memory serves, we were talking about 1.5 years of JTR for long-controlled young players with lots of upside. If Sixto has a healthy shoulder, the deal would have worked well for the Marlins as he could have been a very good starter for years to come. Even Alfaro had upside as a solid starter if he progressed, despite the fact that he was never going to be the elite catcher that JTR already was.
The best trades work for both parties. If JTR was signed elsewhere as a FA and Alfaro had been a middle of the road catcher for 5 years then the Marlins would have been happy. Trade grades should always wait for years later, or simply be viewed in the immediate context of present value alone.
Would be interested to look at what an arbitration contract would look like for a player like him, say he has a great September and the Nats decide keeping him can’t hurt since Ruiz seems like a bust. What would Alfaro make coming off 2 straight minor league years and a ML minimum contract with the Nats.
Thats one way to get an mlb deal jorge
He had a really bad batting average for the Pads, but the hits he did have were pretty clutch.