After watching the way the last season played out, there were some very fair concerns about whether the New York Mets signed the right catcher when they inked Wilson Ramos to a two-year, $19 million deal.
Yasmani Grandal had originally been their first free agent target the winter they signed Ramos, but they could not come to terms on a deal.
Instead, Grandal signed a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers, gambling on himself to boost his market. Grandal put together an All-Star campaign, with an .848 OPS and some of the best defensive metrics in baseball. His gamble paid off when Grandal signed a four-year, $73 million deal with the Chicago White Sox.
Before he signed with Chicago, there were some Mets fans that hoped they would pursue Grandal as a free agent this winter and look to move on from Ramos due to his diminished power and sub-par defensive metrics.
Brodie Van Wagenen never wavered in his support for Ramos though, and the 32-year-old is looking to make good on that faith and produce some big numbers for the Mets in 2020.
Four games into the Mets Grapefruit League schedule, Ramos has three of team’s seven extra-base hits, doing that damage in just four at-bats.
In his first game played, Ramos went 1-for-2 with an RBI double. Then on Monday, Ramos was a huge factor in picking up the Mets first victory of Spring Training.
Ramos hit a solo home run in the second inning to give his team an early lead. In that same at-bat, Ramos cleared the fence with a shot that was hit just foul, before preceding to go yard. He later doubled in the fourth inning and was removed from the game for pinch runner Edgardo Fermin. Fermin went on to score what would be the game-winning run in a 2-1 victory.
While still early, the power stroke that Ramos has displayed is no coincidence. Instead it could be a product of an offseason adjustment to his swing that he hoped would give him these results.
According to an article written by The Record’s Justin Toscano, Ramos has tried to stop “cutting” his swing, which resulted in more ground balls last year. Ramos’ 62.4 percent ground ball rate was the highest-mark among qualified hitters last season.
Now by trying to “stay through the ball”, Ramos is getting more lift on his swing and the result is an increase in power that is sure to help his offensive production this season.
In 2019, Ramos had 136 hits but only 33 of them went for extra-bases. While his .288 batting average and .351 on-base percentage were both great marks for a catcher, Ramos’ .416 slugging percentage really mitigated his offensive value.
That slugging percentage was the lowest for Ramos since 2015, a year before his breakout All-Star season with the Washington Nationals.
Due to his lack of speed, Ramos needs to drive the baseball to really be the type of offensive catcher that makes up for his defensive limitations.
Ramos’ 73 runs batted in last season were a little deceiving considering 22 of those RBIs came with the bases loaded, where he was historically good. The chances of Ramos hitting .611 in those situations again this year are rather slim.
If Ramos can get his slugging percentage back north of .450, where it was for each of his two All-Star seasons (2016, 2018), then he can truly be the dynamic offensive weapon that will give the Mets an edge whenever he’s in the lineup.
The sample size is remarkable small right now, but if Ramos can carry this new swing into the season, he could be primed for a big year.
