Mets catcher Wilson Ramos has not been the impact player we needed

Wilson Ramos came to the New York Mets this winter as a potential major upgrade behind the plate. The results have been less favorable mostly because of his defensive results.

New York Mets catcher Wilson Ramos joined the team last December in a rather favorable deal which could extend to a third season. His offensive numbers are among the best of any catchers in baseball this season. Defensively, he has been woeful.

More than 50 runners have successfully stolen against Ramos. He has given up nearly 20 more stolen bases than any other catcher in baseball. While the pitchers are largely responsible for this as they have been in past years, Ramos has not cut down on the issues plaguing the Mets in the past.

I don’t want to focus on this one aspect of his game. It’s worth mentioning because of how small of an impact he has had on improving the ball club.

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Sure, his offensive numbers are an improvement over what we have seen for about a decade. But when the ace prefers to pitch to the backup, there’s a problem. The fact that Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard have both made it known they would prefer Tomas Nido also feeds into how little he has done to make this team better.

Ramos had a chance to become a game-changing acquisition. His mix of offense, defense, and veteran leadership was something I looked forward to seeing. Among them, it’s the leadership I’m most upset with.

It’s not his job to rally the troops. I do love my field generals behind the plate, though. Largely because of this, I’m unhappy with the early results. He seems more like a bystander than anything else.

Admittedly, I had exceptional expectations for Ramos. He was supposed to become the right-handed bat to turn the offense around. This hasn’t been the case in the least bit. Ramos is a regular contributor who tends to kill more rallies than he begins.

In his first 35 at-bats in late or close situations, Ramos is hitting .200 with four double plays grounded into. He doesn’t have any extra-base hits in this situation either.

While far from the worst on the team (see Amed Rosario’s .087 batting average in these spots), he has been anything but clutch for the Mets.

A little deceptive, Ramos has hit well with runners in scoring position. He’s a .348 hitter in these situations. My takeaway here is that many of those hits are happening early or in blowouts. Ramos isn’t getting involved in rallies. He’s not alone. Rosario has good numbers with runners in scoring position. Meanwhile, Pete Alonso and Dominic Smith have had opposite seasons with good late/close number but poor ones with runners in scoring position.

Ramos isn’t having a bad year offensive year statistically when matched up with the rest of the league. Those other intangibles are what makes his presence feel lackluster.

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After years of watching part-time catchers play too often behind the plate for this team, it was nice to know the Mets landed a true starter. Minus the support of the team’s two starters who will stick around for next year, it’s looking more and more like a bad match.