2:48pm: The Mets will also buy out their options on infielder Todd Frazier and catcher Robinson Chirinos, reports Tim Healey of Newsday. As with Ramos, neither decision is surprising. Both Frazier and Chirinos were acquired from the Rangers at the trade deadline, albeit in separate transactions.
Frazier, 35 in February, batted .236/.302/.382 in 172 trips to the plate between Arlington and Queens in 2020. His one-year, $5MM deal included a $3.5MM salary in 2020 and a $1.5MM buyout on a $5.75MM option for the 2021 season. The Mets had a net $4.25MM decision on the slugger, but he’ll head out into the open market once again.
Chirinos, 36, had a $1MM buyout on a $6.5MM option for the upcoming 2021 campaign. Given this season’s dismal .162/.232/.243 performance between the two clubs (82 plate appearances), there was no way the Mets were going to pick him up at that salary.
1:40pm: The Mets are planning to decline their $10MM club option on veteran catcher Wilson Ramos, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. It’s anything but a surprise given Ramos’ lackluster tenure in Queens. He’ll be paid a $1.5MM buyout and head back to the open market in search of a new club.
Ramos, 33, was known to be an offense-first catcher when he signed with the Mets prior to the 2019 season, but his production never reached the levels the Mets likely expected of him. His 2019 campaign was solid, particularly for a catcher (105 wRC+), but Ramos’ two years as a Met resulted in a rather pedestrian .276/.339/.410 batting line through 679 trips to the plate.
Were Ramos a strong defensive backstop, that production would make him an excellent all-around catcher, but that hasn’t been the case for some time now. He registered bottom-of-the-scale framing metrics in his two years in Queens, and his -12 Defensive Runs Saved and 15.9 percent caught-stealing rate underscore the struggles he endured. That led to some drama with Noah Syndergaard, who reportedly requested that Tomas Nido catch his starts because of Ramos’ inadequacies as a receiver. The 122 stolen bases allowed by Ramos since 2019 are far and away the most in Major League Baseball; Yasmani Grandal’s 80 are the next-highest, though he’s also logged a solid 29.2 percent caught-stealing rate in that time.
The defensive questions surrounding Ramos will complicate his market this winter, although when he’s at his best at the plate, he’s proven to be one of the more productive bats the game has to offer at the position. From 2016-19, Ramos made two All-Star teams and logged a combined .294/.346/.463 slash with 62 home runs and 72 doubles in 1687 plate appearances.
Realmuto
High priced catcher over 30 with a questionable hip, that’s a hazardous path they may want to avoid. He is not going to accept a deal shorter than 3 years so it’s in the Mets interest to invest their money elsewhere. Also, correct me if I am wrong but isn’t he a good ole boy from Oklahoma? I’m not sure he would deal well with NY
Are they really much better in Philly? How did he handle it there?
Good point. New ownership will make a quick splash and could overpay. The MLBPA is drooling with Cohen on the horizon. Even with him, the overall market will be severely depressed.
I’d say Philly and Boston are worse markets than New York.
As to the OP’s question, hmmm, oh I seem to remember some centerfielder from OK doing marginally well in NY for the team in the Bronx. Not the Mets, but still NY. Ummm, what was his name?? No, no. It wasn’t Bobby Murcer. Someone help me here.
That was 50 yrs ago, and he did have a hard time adjusting his first 2 yrs, and then became an alcoholic the rest of his career.
one minor injury and his hip is questionable?
I can assure you, the idea that athletes cannot handle NYC is quite overblown. The real reason some players don’t want to come to NYC has to do with the insane taxes.
Realmuto is a total professional who can play well anywhere. The Philadelphia media is not much different from the NY media. He’ll be fine wherever he goes.
Im not saying he will go this route but the last time the mets paid an over 30 catcher record breaking money he did pretty well for them.
3-4 good years with a couple of deep playoff runs the first couple years, but i mean honestly what mets fan has ever heard of the name Mike Piazza. I know i never have how about you all?
If they get him 5-6 years and we get 3-4 Piazza years out of him im happy with that. Figure with all the up and downs and such (mike got 7-91) 6-150 sounds about right although if he wants to break record upping it to 7-170 is not horrible but definitely no more. (this beats posey by 2 mil total and the average by about 2-3 mil)
Right because Philadelphia is just like a mid-west city in the Bible belt.
Philly is one of the toughest if not the toughest markets to handle. When you are doing well they let you know and when you’re struggling they don’t mind letting you know about it.
Is Noah Syndergaard really consistently good enough to request a catcher?
Ever stop to think the catcher may have something to do with the inconsistency?
Before Ramos showed up, Syndergaard wasn’t exactly consistent. Of course the catcher matters but I doubt Syndergaard would be a top 20 guy even without Ramos.
Syndergaard has had 1 bad year dude
And 1 great year.
Yup. He isn’t elite. But he is good. Has the stuff to be elite but I don’t know if he ever gets there.
A amazing 2 SP. assuming he doesn’t come back worse
By that standard, no. But there was a legitimate discrepancy between his numbers with Ramos vs. Nido (that admittedly needs to be quantified).
For what it’s worth, DeGrom also didn’t like throwing to Ramos, and consistency obviously isn’t a problem for him.
The ball usually goes exactly where DaGrom wants it to go. Noah’s pitches didn’t have quite the same accuracy.
Of course, I’m not saying that Syndergaard would be on DeGrom’s level if he threw to a different catcher. I just think that there was something going on with Ramos beyond Syndergaard being overly picky.
I generally would say Syndagaard is not so great that he can request his own catcher but this might be more of an indictment on Ramos than Syndagaard being a premadonna.
I’m pretty sure Madonna arrived on the scene before him.
If you don’t want Noah feel free to send him down to Atlanta. You can have Ender.
I’m kidding, btw, Mets fans. Not an actual trade proposal. Always been a fan of Noah. Talented dude. I would love to see him in Atlanta.
I guess Little Stevie Cohen whispered that’s not where he wants to spend his trillions.
Next up, bad-hip JT Realmuto, who will become the next underperforming Mets catcher.
I hope you are aware there is a magnitude of difference between billions and trillions.
I hope you understand hyperbole, but of course you don’t.
James McCann is the smart answer. Just as good of a bat as Ramos and much better defensively.
yeah, I think McCann will provide more bang for your buck then JT will.
Agree. And Cohen’s $$$ would be better spent on a starter or 2, which the Mets desperately need
Ramos might be low-cost option to pair with Trevino for Rangers in order to allow Huff another year or two to be truly ready. On a second note is Alonso bad defensively, as I see posts at times that would indicate this. His power albeit in a one-year sample is tremendous.
Yes, Alonso is pretty bad defensively
Can he be coached out of defensive problems?
Not at this point. If anything start expecting decline. He’s got very little value unless he finds it with his bat again.
Alonso will be our DH and smith 1B. Even if not next year bc the DH goes away. In 2021 that will be where they play. So I’m not worried about Alonso defense
The only positive thing I can really say about Ramos’s Mets tenure is that he was surprisingly healthy (obviously the short season helped)
Now they need to go for McCann. Finding a competent defensive catcher has to be part of the defensive overhaul for this team.
Mets need Trout since they didn’t go after Betts last winter. DeGrom, Alonso, Conforto, Rosario for Trout.
Since you’re a Yankees fan, I assume this is a tongue in cheek post? Trout has as much of a chance being traded by LAA as the Dodgers trading Mookie. It makes no difference what the package is; he is and will be the face of the franchise for years to come. Not to mention his full no-trade clause.
If Boston can trade Mookie, Angels can trade Trout for the right price.
With the full no-trade clause, the decision would be up to Trout. I don’t see him agreeing to leave LA at least for another 6 years (when he’s chasing a ring late in his career). Mookie had no say in his trade.
I would rather have DeGrom and Conforto over Trout.
If Cohen wanted to make THAT trade, Mets fans should storm his office with pitch forks and torches.
At least we know that one free agent catcher is going to get an above market deal to come to NY. They have painted themselves into a corner by releasing both of their catchers.
I don’t know, I feel like Catching and Relief Pitching are the two worst spots to sink money. Catching is a grind.
I think it’s a stretch to say that they painted themselves into a corner. Ramos was completely unproductive and definitely wasn’t worth keeping for $10MM, and I think it would be fairly easy to do better than Chirinos at $6.5MM.
Even if they don’t end up with Realmuto or McCann, there’s the usual assortment of cheap veteran stopgaps floating around
Veteran stop gaps don’t win divisions or pennants. Cohen wants to field a winner ASAP so his checkbook will be wide open for an above average catcher. McCann makes the most sense if you ask me. 3/$30M
I think he’s just making the point that they didn’t paint themselves in a corner. Ramos and Chirinos are worse than veteran stop gaps and their options were easy to decline at the price. No brainers. But I do think it would be best to pick up a decent catcher.
Mets offense is good enough so they could get a defensive catcher who isn’t the best hitter tbh
Get pitching and springer
Frazier will find a job somewhere. Dude mashes lefties and is a still a solid fielder at both infield corners.
Wouldn’t it be a better idea to spend 2 years $10-12 million on McCann with Francisco Alvarez. in the pipeline rather than give JT and his balky hip a 6-7 year deal?
Might Not Be Realmuto…
He seems to have COLD FEET about playing for either NY TEAM
MIGHT BE MCANN
I keep seeing comments talking about him not wanting to be in NY but idk why that would be unless I missed something. Philly to me is as brutal a market is there is.
When a player heading into free agency says he doesn’t want to play in NY, or prefers the West Coast (as was the rumor with both Sabathia and Cole), what they’re saying is I’d love to play in NY, but show me the money. The Mets under Cohen can buy his love. The Yankees will be sitting this one out. The Mets and the Phillies seem the likely contenders for his services so he wants a bidding war.
That’s probably the end of the road for Frazier.
He hit .293/.359/.483 against lefties. Somebody could use that kind of production as a platoon bat who can play both corner infield positions fairly well.
Then again, the new Mets’ leadership could look west for a young, defensively-strong catcher by way of trade, who could overcome rookie jitters and pitcher adjustments to become again a strong offensive catcher, and be a solid backstop in the Big Apple for years to come.
Some team is going to spend a fortune on Realmuto because catching, offensively, is putrid.
If the Mets could pry Sal Perez from the Royals along with someone younger, like the kid from the Twins, I’d be happy.
Any chance Contreas is available on the Cubs.
Yasmani Grandal is looking awfully smart right now at 4/$73M
Irrelevant players on an underachieving team. Non story.
Damn shame you had to waste your time reading it. And then you went & made all that effort to type a comment. Slow day at the lemonade stand, I guess.
To the ones that posted about just needing a defensive catcher. I would absolutely encourage the Mets to negotiate a deal for Mike Zunino. Top 10 defensive catcher for pennies. The Rays could really use an offensive replacement..
Lol … heavy buyouts for the talent to begin with. I’m guessing they are making a bid for JT