The Nationals are thinking about making Wilson Ramos the Opening Day starter behind the plate, two baseball sources tell Bill Ladson of MLB.com. Ladson writes that if Ramos wins the starting job, then Ivan Rodriguez would be relegated to the bench or dealt to another team. With Rodriguez out of the picture, Jesus Flores would presumably be the backup.
With the aforementioned catchers plus prospect Derek Norris in the fold, the Nationals have seemed willing to move a backstop this winter. Flores drew some interest from the Astros following Jason Castro's potentially season-ending knee injury, but the club quickly cooled on him due to concerns about his surgically repaired shoulder.
If Washington feels comfortable with Ramos as their top catcher, then Rodriguez would be expendable. The 39-year-old is in the final year of a two-year, $6MM deal.
well obviously ivan calls a good game and provides solid defense and leadership in the clubhouse
he still has some pop in his bat but certainly grounds into his share of double plays oh btw 1st?
he’s an awful, awful hitter at this point. just terrible
his glove & arm make him a decent backup
He batted .266 last year. I’m not saying that’s wonderful but it’s not “awful, awful hitter” quality.
So what do you call a .294 OBP?
Unsatisfactory. I didn’t say the guy was still an All-Star anymore by any means. He’s still a decent option for teams needing a stop-gap at catcher or a contending team with a question mark behind the plate.
Coincidentally, that was also Ramos’s OBP in AAA last year.
I know Ramos can handle the glove quite well, but I really don’t see much in his bat. Little plate discipline, average power at best. Struggling to post an OPS above .700 in AAA doesn’t bode well for the future. He’s still young, but I just don’t see him turning into this elite catcher.
you’re drawing on like a half year (~350 PA) sample which is an obvious outlier from his previous work and consensus potential
Well, I just don’t have a whole lot to go on. I’ve seen maybe 10 of his PA’s, and his MILB numbers prior to 2010 were solid. There is a drastic difference in his 2009 and 2010 OPS, which suggests that he’s better with the bat than he showed last year. I’m not saying he’s a sub-.700 OPS kind of hitter. His numbers in the minors have fluctuated, but what has been a constant is his apparent lack of plate discipline.
I just think he needs more seasoning offensively. He took a large step backwards last year(at least at the plate) and now the Nationals are discussing making him the opening day starter at the big league level, just seems odd.
oh i agree that he doesn’t look ready. i took you to be discounting his overall potential, which is still good
batting average, huh? cool story. now we know the ratio of hits to at-bats. in other words, we don’t know much
his wOBA last year was .279. league average is ~.335. even luis castillo hit .285
wOBA tells us not only about the frequency with which the player avoids outs (OBP), but about the quality of the non-out events he contributes (a single is not worth as much as a double let alone a HR, for example)
wOBA tells us that ivan rodrquez’s bat at this point is awful
i never made it out like he was a great hitter i just said he’s still has some pop
but if “has some pop” means a .279 wOBA, the league average hitter is a powerhouse
good hitting catchers are few in far between its not rly entirely fair 2 compare the catcher position to say the 1B position for hitting purposes…
when i say “has some pop” i mean he can still drive the ball in a gap for a double when he makes contact and gets a good pitch to hit…i rly dont expect home runs from him anymore and as i said before he’ll still hit into his share of double plays
League average wOBA for catchers with at least 300 plate appearances is ≈ .329; of those catchers “Pudge” (.279) is third from last, ahead of only Benjie Molina (.275) and Jason Kendall (.278). He’s still not good even if you compare him to only catchers.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he went back to Houston before the month is out.
What about the red sox? If the salty/tek mix doesn’t work, at least pudge could add defensive value.
I feel like the Sox would probably prefer to go with in-house options instead of paying for Rodriguez. Actually, they’d probably just reacquire Kevin Cash… again.
sox maybe…….. it would make some sense
Oh God, please no. It would make WAY more sense to promote Wagner if they are having trouble at the catchers position.
Padres may be interested.
Alex Avila is awful. Please DD, bring him back.
Avila will probably offer more offensively. No idea about his defense, but Pudge is one of the worst offensive catchers in baseball at this point and possibly THE worst STARTING catcher.
Avila struggles to hit .220. Pudge hits .260. I’d like Pudge. Plus I-Rod is better at catching in general. The only reason Avila is on this team is because his dad is the Assistant GM. He would not make any other team.
As a tigers fan I miss this guy. Yea you can say his offense sucks and whatnot but hes a catcher and heck I think our starter(laird) batted below .200!!!
Point is I would love to have this guy back and let avila develop more because I didnt like what I saw last year from him and pudge could teach him A LOT.
This guy gives you great defense and knows how to manage a staff and isnt a black hole in the lineup.
He is, in every possible way, a black hole in any lineup. His value comes solely from his defense and ‘leadership’ skills.
Eh he batted .255 last year, and for a catcher hes not THAT bad. Yea his obp is around .300 but still thats better then what we have!
What about the Mariners? They haven’t had a dependable catcher in years and this year they have Miguel Olivo. Pudge could give them a solid backstop, and probably a .250 average, which wouldn’t be bad for a struggling Seattle offense. Al least going off of last year
The worst hitting catcher in the NL, won’t help the worst hitting team in the AL.
idk if i were seattle id take a chance on him.. their team average last year was .236. Their big offensive signings were brendan ryan, who hit .223 last year, jack cust, who did hit .272 last year, but in 349 ABs, and migeul olivo, who seattle fans are very familiar with already, and who is a career .246 hitter. Pudge isnt amazing anymore, he’ll probably bat around .250 like i said, but he brings good defense, someone to help and coach all their young arms, and veteran presence and leadership to the locker room- something they are lacking. it wouldnt put them at the top obviously, but the M’s have a surplus of prospects, can spare one or two for him. On paper at least, itd be a step in the right direction i think, but that also depends on if the M’s think trading a prospect is worth one or two years max youll get out of Pudge, he’s definitely on his way out.
Word to the wise: you’re probably going to want to use something besides batting average when you are evaluating someones talent, or at least use MORE than batting average.
I agree with Bloodgimp. Rodriguez would be more valueable as a mentor to Ramos than as a trade chip. Although there’s questions about Flores’ arm, you’d think you could get more out of him anyway. Guess it depends on how bad his arm looks. Not sure if Flores has options left, but maybe they could put him on the DL and send him to the instructional league and see how his arm has recovered after another 15 days from day 1 of the season…then re-evaluate their options.
Padres could be a good suitor for Pudge. I don’t really see any team that can put him to use besides the Padres or the Astros but NOOOOOOO thank you! We will stick to Towles/Quintero. Best suitor is the Padres in my opinion.
The Nationals would probably have to eat most of his salary in order for a deal to the Padres to go down. I don’t think the Padres can afford his salary right now.
Pudge is best suited as a defensive minded backup on a team with a young catcher who needs some grooming. That being said, he’s on the ill advised hunt for 3,000 hits and I don’t see him being all that willing to ride the pine. Not saying he is selfish but clearly he’s at a point in his career where he might have his own agenda.