Alex Avila has experience catching Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin. And it shows.

And along the way, in stints with the Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks, he stored tons of information on Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin that could now serve him and the Washington Nationals well. Avila is the team’s new backup catcher after signing a one-year, $1.5 million contract in late January. He is expected to start a maximum of two times per week to spell Yan Gomes. But his experience with Scherzer and Corbin could make him more valuable come September than his stats and workload might suggest.

He has caught Scherzer more than any other catcher. He paired with Corbin throughout the lefty’s breakout 2018 season. Avila even intersected with Jon Lester, the Nationals’ fourth starter, with the Cubs; Sam Clay, a young reliever, with the Minnesota Twins last spring and summer; and T.J. McFarland, a veteran reliever on a nonroster invite, in Arizona. He’s been around.

“He’s very familiar with what they do and what they want to do,” Manager Dave Martinez said of Avila’s past connection with Scherzer and Corbin. “It’s kind of nice to bring a guy in that’s actually had experience with some of our starting pitchers and our bullpen.”

“When you watch him, you know his heart rate isn’t going too fast. He’s always calm,” said Lester, who spent half a season with Avila in Chicago. “He’s always — trying to think of the right way to say this. It’s kind of like an easy — he gives you that easy feeling. You know what I mean? I guess [he] kind of eases your nerves a little bit when you’re out there kind of going a little fast.”

In a video call with reporters Wednesday, Avila broke down Scherzer’s and Corbin’s tendencies with impressive recall. He discussed how, in 2013, Scherzer adopted a curveball to throw inside against left-handed hitters. He explained that Scherzer was having trouble getting his slider on lefties’ hands, so the curve was added as a gateway to throwing breaking balls across his body.

Then both the curve and slider clicked no matter who was up and Scherzer won the Cy Young Award with Avila behind the plate. From there, he learned a cutter with the Nationals to give himself another weapon, and won the Cy Young twice more.

“It opened a lot of things up for him as far as a pitch selection and game-planning standpoint,” Avila said of Scherzer’s curveball. “And then he’s obviously taken it to another level.”

Change-ups accounted for just 1.1 percent of Corbin’s total pitches in 2018, according to FanGraphs. That rate jumped to 5.8 in 2019 and was a hair lower, at 5.7, in 2020. Avila believes it is a good pitch for Corbin to throw outside against right-handed hitters. Corbin typically likes to pitch to his glove side — inside to righties, outside to lefties — without a ton of variance. He allowed 85 hits last year, the most in the National League, and was all too hittable when working in the zone.

When on, his slider is one of the best swing-and-miss pitches in the majors. The change-up, though, could make it more effective (and less predictable) to righties. That’s basically the only time Corbin throws it, but Avila would like to see more if Corbin is comfortable.

“It’s kind of hard for some guys maybe to go to the other side of the plate with something off-speed,” Avila said. “It’s good with the fastball when he goes to the other side of the plate. But having something off-speed going the opposite direction to a righty could take some pressure off that slider a little bit when guys are making adjustments to it, either trying to lay off it or they’re looking for it to hit it.

“That’s where that change-up could come into play as far as getting quick outs early in the game against righties and kind of saving that slider for a big strikeout later in the game.”

The Nationals have experienced a lot of turnover at catcher in the last half decade. Wilson Ramos was the starter when Scherzer first got to Washington in 2015. Jose Lobaton was his sturdy backup. Matt Wieters then took over for two seasons before Gomes and Kurt Suzuki came along. That duo shared the spot in 2019 and 2020, with Gomes catching Corbin and Suzuki handling most of Scherzer’s outings.

The Gomes-Avila pairing should be far less than an even split. Avila was a league-average hitter in 2019 but is prone to long slumps. Yet he is a defensive upgrade over Suzuki and brings what few catchers have for the Nationals in recent years: A wide and thorough view of two of their most important pitchers. Measurable or not, the benefits seem clear.