Daniel Alvarez Montes of Extra Baseball (a Florida publication) is reporting that the Mets have a deal with Wilson Ramos. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic says it is a two-year deal.
Jon Heyman of FanCred says the deal is worth $19 million while Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds that there is an option for the 2021 season that could bring the total value of the deal to $26 million, w$19.5 million guaranteed.
James Wagner of the New York Times writes that Ramos will make $8.5 million in 2019, $9.25 million in 2020, and his 2021 option will be worth $10 million.
Ramos, 31, hit .306/.358/.487 in 416 PAs last season with a 130 OPS+. He is a significant offensive upgrade for the Mets behind the dish.
However, he is not as well known for his defensive presence as he ranked 48th in framing runs out of 117 qualifying catchers in framing runs while his swipe rate above average (SRAA) ranked 64th.
The Mets have been scouring the market for a catcher. The names most connected to them were J.T. Realmuto and Yasmani Grandal to this point.
Rosenthal reports, though, that the team ultimately picked Ramos over Grandal because of his high cost and the fact the team would be forced to surrender a second-round draft pick and $500K in International Bonus Pool money.
Meanwhile, they passed on trading for J.T. Realmuto because they were not comfortable giving up MLB talent in exchange for him. The Mets had reportedly discussed scenarios involving Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto, Amed Rosario, and Noah Syndergaard.
Ramos ended up doing better in free agency that Jon Heyman predicted at the beginning of the offseason as he expected the two-time All-Star to only get a one-year, $9 million contract in free agency.
The catcher has spent parts of eight seasons in the NL East, predominantly with the Washington Nationals, but also spent the majority of the second half of the 2018 season with the Philadelphia Phillies after being traded there by the Tampa Bay Rays.
This signing finally gives the Mets the starting catcher they have struggled to find since 2015, when Travis d’Arnaud put together his best season to date.
As of now, the Mets are set to have four catchers on the 40-man roster who have registered MLB appearances in Ramos, d’Arnaud, Kevin Plawecki, and Tomas Nido.
D’Arnaud, 29, was recently tendered a contract for the 2019 season, but can be cut at any time with the Mets only being on the hook for a minimal portion of his projected arbitration number, which is $3.7 million according to MLB Trade Rumors.
According to Andy Martino of SNY, the team plans to keep d’Arnaud and have him serve as the back-up to Ramos, with Kevin Plawecki now being made available in a trade.
