Wilson Ramos has been criticized many times for his lack of framing ability and defense as a whole behind the dish this season.
It got so bad at one point that Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard had a preference of Tomas Nido catching them every time, which the Mets briefly allowed.
However, with the Mets offense being very inconsistent lately, there is one player that has managed to be extremely consistent in Ramos, who extended his hitting streak to 20 games on Tuesday night, going 2-for-4.
That makes Ramos the first Mets player since David Wright (September 14, 2007- April 2, 2008) to have a hitting streak of 20 0r more games.
Moises Alou was the last Mets player to have a hitting streak of that many games in one season and holds the team record for the longest hitting streak at 30 games in 2007.
Ramos, 32, is 32-for-76 (.421 average) in that span with three home runs and 14 RBI. In the month of August, Ramos has a .991 OPS while he also has impressively struck out only seven times in 87 plate appearances.
On the year, Ramos is hitting .288/.315/.416 with 13 home runs and 63 RBI to give himself a 106 OPS+ and 1.5 bWAR.
His offensive production is largely the reason Syndergaard and deGrom rarely get caught by Nido anymore as the disparity has become great enough that Mickey Callaway has tried to get the entire pitching staff comfortable with Ramos, hoping that they can rest him as little as possible down the stretch.
With Nido now on the seven-day IL due to concussion protocol, the team is even more reliant on Ramos catching every game as Rene Rivera is now their backup catcher until Nido returns.
Rivera, 36, has only played in one game at the major league level this season (Sunday against the Atlanta Braves) in which he didn’t register a hit.
Despite the fact that Rivera hit 23 home runs at Triple-A Syracuse this season which many could never have even imagined, Ruben Tejada also hit .330 in the International League and was released within two weeks of joining the Mets so there’s no reason to believe those numbers are going to translate to the majors especially considering Rivera’s MLB track record.
While Ramos’ defense is behind that of Rivera’s and Nido’s, his offensive production has become too important for the Mets to deny in the lineup, especially after seeing the Mets muster up only nine runs over their last four games.
If the Mets want to make the playoffs, Ramos is going to have to continue being a consistent piece in the Mets lineup while also establishing a strong rapport with his pitching staff.
