Wilson Ramos Agrees To 2-Year Deal With Mets
One big free agent catcher found a new home today as Wilson Ramos reportedly agreed to a 2-year, $19 million contract with the New York Mets.
The Mets have struggled to find offense from their catchers for the past decade but Wilson Ramos has a good chance of finally filling the crater left in the lineup by Mike Piazza.
Ramos hit .306/.358/.487 in 111 games with the Rays and Phillies last season. Between Ramos, J.T. Realmuto, and Yasmani Grandal(the three big catchers on the market), Ramos lead the trio with a .361 wOBA and 131 wRC+.
Ramos should certainly be a nice addition for the Mets, driving in runs after Brandon Nimmo, Amed Rosario, Michael Conforto, and everybody else whom they did not trade for Realmuto gets on base.
This move indicates that catcher defense is not as important as it once seemed like it would be for the Mets, who had shown interest in Martín Maldonado. Ramos definitely is not a defensive wiz behind the plate, ranking 77th out of 117 catchers in FRAA in 2018 but he has a good arm and his signing obviously was not about this part of his game.
Perhaps the most concerning thing about Ramos is his injury history. He has missed time due to hamstring and knee injuries, as well as a broken hand, so it would behoove the Mets to keep a solid backup catcher around. As long as Ramos is healthy though, he will improve the team.
As for the rest of the league — the J.T. Realmuto market just got one team smaller. Yasmani Grandal and plenty of other catchers are still out there to be signed as well so maybe this will wake the Marlins up and get them to lower their requests from potential trade partners and maybe it will also lead some teams to sign any of the other catchers out there.
Stay tuned…
