Washington Nationals reinstate Matt Wieters; option Pedro Severino + Nats’ catching search rumors...

Washington’s Nationals reinstated Matt Wieters from the Disabled List this afternoon and optioned catcher Pedro Severino to Triple-A Syracuse.

Our guess is the Nationals want to get Severino everyday at bats with the top minor league affiliate, with Spencer Kieboom as the back in the big leagues.

Davey Martinez updated reporters on Wieters’ progress after the veteran catcher made the first of his two rehab appearances with the Harrisburg Senators this weekend. Wieters is working his way back from a hamstring injury which required surgery, getting into situations where he could test it while running was the next step.

Wieters went 1 for 4 with a double in Saturday’s game, and came out of it looking good.

“He did well,” Martinez said.

“He’s going to play again today, and then we’ll go from there, but he played really well. He said he felt great, which is nice. Ran a couple balls out to first base and had no issue, so he felt great catching, hit the ball fairly well, so we’ll see what happens today.”

When he’s back, Martinez explained, they’ll still have to handle him carefully, and decide how often he can go.

“We’re going to have to assess that when he comes back,” Martinez explained, “especially we’ll see how he feels after today, cause this will be his second day in a row and that’s always the toughest thing is when these guys come back, how many days can they play. I’m assuming maybe two days, possibly three depending on whether we have a night or day game, and then we’ll go from there. But it’s all going to depend. I’ll have conversations with him every day and see how he feels, but we want to keep him healthy.”

Wieters went 0 for 2 with a walk in his second game with the Senators on Sunday.

Martinez didn’t like Severino’s bat flip, and he let his catcher know

Link: “When you have two, the bat flip doesn’t play.” - Davey Martinez

Meanwhile, while the Nats are waiting for Wieters’ return, there were reports this weekend which said Washington was still on the lookout for some help behind the plate.

Boston Globe writer Nick Cafardo wrote on Sunday morning that the Nationals, “... recently dispatched special assistant Dan Jennings to watch,” Tampa Bay’s Wilson Ramos, who was, of course, Washington’s catcher before he signed a free agent deal with the Rays, and, the report noted that, “... it’s not so farfetched he could return to the Nationals.”

Later in the day on Sunday, Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman too reported that the Nationals, “... are targeting their former catcher Wilson Ramos for acquisition, and Tampa Bay is said to be ‘closely watching’ the Nats’ system as the teams continue to talk about a potential match.”

Will the Nationals bring Ramos back and pair him with Wieters? For now they’re going with Wieters and Kieboom after they optioned Severino.