Welcome To New York Wilson Ramos

The Catcher. Plays a key role on a baseball field. He controls the pitching staff for his team, controls the run game for the opposing team, and can provide some offensive production as well. A guy who can do all three, and do them all very well, is rare to come by in the Major Leagues. One guy who can be put into that category is Wilson Ramos, who had been one of the highly touted free agents on the market this winter at the catcher position. He's not on the market anymore, as he's signed a two year deal, with a club option for a third year, worth $19.5 Million. The team that signed him was the New York Mets and it managed to kill two birds with one stone. It got them a player they really needed and it didn't cost them players in order to get him.

First, lets look at the signing at face value and what it means to the Mets. Ramos is a good hitting catcher. He's a .273 lifetime hitter, a guy who averages at least 10 home runs and more than 75 RBI's in a season. He hit .307 last year with 15 homers and 70 RBI split between Tampa Bay and Philadelphia. He's been battling back after dealing with tearing his ACL late in the 2016 season. Of catchers with at least 1,000 plate appearances over the past three seasons, Ramos’ OPS of .826 is second, behind Gary Sánchez and ahead of Buster Posey, Willson Contreras and Yasmani Grandal. Seeing numbers like that makes me as a Mets fan happy, knowing we have a guy who can get on base and can hit.

Facts are, the Mets haven't had security, from an offensive perspective at least, from the catcher position since Mike Piazza. The only guy that's come close to being able to really produce as a catcher for the Mets since Piazza was Paul Lo Duca. Lo Duca wasn't off the charts great at the plate, but he was very serviceable. Now they know they have a guy behind the plate who can rake a little with a bat in his hand. HIs defense is about average, maybe a little bit above it. His offensive production can cover for it. He's not going to set the world on fire with his bat, but he will be able to do enough to be very productive with this New York Club.

Now here's the other plus side for it for the Mets. Everybody knows that New York had been in talks with the Miami Marlins about J.T. Realmuto. The Marlins were reportedly demanding at least one of Amed Rosario, Michael Conforto, and Brandon Nimmo in any deal for their star catcher. That's too high an asking price. Yes getting Realmuto from the Marlins would have been huge, but it also would have come at too high a cost. Nimmo and Conforto could be major building blocks for the outfield. Getting rid of Rosario in the deal would have added another HUGE hole that the Mets would then have to have gone out and try and fill. There was also one rumor floating around that the Mets could have been involved in a three team trade with the Marlins and Yankees that could have seen Noah Syndergaard traded to the Bronx with Realmuto heading to NY. Thankfully that never happened, because that too would have left a hole on this team, this time in the starting rotation, which is a strength of the Mets.

Getting Ramos was a great signing by new GM Brodie Van Waganen. It got the Mets a need to fill, especially with Travis d'Arnaud still recovering from Tommy John Surgery. They got a catcher that they needed, one who has a good offensive upside, and it didn't cost them any pieces that could have created another hole for this team. Good signing by Brodie and Welcome to New York, Wilson!