Wilson Ramos: 2019 Mets Catcher (2019-2020)

Wilson Abraham Ramos Campos was born on August 10th 1987 in Valencia Venezuela. The six foot one catcher was signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Tins in July 2004.

In the minor leagues he was a fine defensive catcher, throwing out an incredible 43% of would be base stealers.

 He helped his team to a first half Florida State League title, then in the second half when the teams main catcher went down, he raised his average a good ninety points (.333) and was named to the All Star Team. The next year he hit .317 at AA New Britain & tore up the Venezuelan Winter League as well.

In 2010 he was invited to Spring training & hit well, batting over .400 showing off some fine defense too. But rather than have him sitting on the bench behind Joe Mauer, he was sent down to AAA Rochester. He got his callup at the end of April when Mauer went down with injury. 

Trivia: Ramos made Twins history when he collected four hits in his MLB debut, in an 8-3 win over the Cleveland Indians. He matched Twins legend, Kirby Puckett 's debut in 1984. A week later Mauer was back & Ramos back at AAA.

Nats Career: In July, he was traded to the Washington Nationals along with Joe Testa for closer Matt Clapps. In 2011 he batted .267 with 15 HRs 22 doubles & 52 RBIs making Baseball Americas All Rookie team at Catcher, while coming in fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting. 

Drama: In November of 2011, while playing baseball in Venezuela, he was kidnapped by four gunman near his home. He was with his family at the time. Two days later he was reported alive & eight suspects were caught as he was freed. 

Quotes- Wilson Ramos: "What they did was laugh, joke about my pain. I'm very thankful, and I feel like I've been born again

Unfortunately, his next three years were filled with all kinds of injuries, limiting his playing time, with just 25 games in 2012 & seeing a high of 88 games in 2014.

2014 Post Season: With all his injuries he only played in one post season, seeing action in the NLDS batting .118 in four games (2-17).

In 2015 he played in 128

games, 15 HRs 16 doubles with 68 RBIs but only batting .228. Defensively he was second in the NL throwing out 44% of would be base stealers, after coming in third the previous year at 37%. His .995 fielding % was 5th best & the next year he 2nd with a .997%.

He rebounded at the plate in 2016, batting .307 (9th best in the NL) with career highs in HRs 22 doubles 25 RBIs 80 hits 148 & on base % .354 as well as 131 games played. That year he made his first All Star appearance & won a Silver Slugger Award. Once again injury struck as he tore his ACL on September 26th, missing the post season.

Tampa Rays Career: Still out with injury entering 2017 he signed a two year deal with the Tampa Rays. That year in just 64 games he batted .260 with 11 HRs 35 RBIs while throwing out 30% of base runners attempting to steal.

In 2018 he began the year with the Tampa Rays, playing in 78 games batting .297 with 14 HRs 14 doubles 53 RBIs. He made the AL All Star team, his second All Star election but missed action nursing another injury.

Phillies Career: On July 31st, 2018 he was sent to the Philadelphia Phillies for a player to be named later. In just 23 games behind the plate he threw out 44% of would be base stealers & batted .37 in 33 games overall. He was granted free agency & was signed by the New York Mets in December. 

Although the Mets were chasing JT Realmuto from Miami, the asking price was too high. The Mets said we'll do business some where else. 

They had also thought about Yasmani Grandal from Los Angeles but he didn't sign. So The Mets chose to go with Ramos, as a much needed improvement behind the plate & a run producer.

Mets Career 2019: In the second game of the season, Ramos doubled off his old battery mate, Steven Strasburg, driving in two runs in the 1st inning of a 10-8 Mets win. He would hit safely in his first seven Mets games & drive in five runs. In April he would hit just one HR but drive in 17 runs & have five multi RBI games.

On May 14th, once again facing his old Nats team mates, he hit a 1st inning grand slam off Jeremy Hellickson, leading the Mets to a 6-2 win. 

On May 24th he homered against the Detroit Tigers, then came back the next say & hit two HRs in the game. His 6th inning, two run shot put the Mets ahead after being behind 3-2. After Edwin Diaz blew another save,  Tomas Nido hit a walk HR in the 13th to win it over Detroit.

In June he hit HRs in back to back games he played against Arizona & San Francisco. He did it again in late June in Chicago & Philadelphia getting his average up to .280.

Family Surprise: On June 13th Ramos  was in the on deck circle at Citi  Field, when his wife held up a sign that she was pregnant with their third child, quite  a surprise for the catcher. He struck out looking.

But then he fell into a slump only driving in runs in one of his next 18 games. He had just 15 RBIs in June & July combined. Behind the plate he was also having problems. 

His throwing out base runners caught stealing fell to 14%. Jacob deGrom & Noah Syndergaard even preferred pitching to back up catcher Tomas Nido, instead of Ramos. The whole team was at a low point & struggling.

In late July the Mets went on a big win streak, winning seven straight & then five straight, 12 of their last 13. In that stretch Ramos also began to hit, he collected 12 hits with 3 HRs & 15 RBIs, including a career night. He would drive in runs in four straight games starting on July 31st in Chicago in 4-2 win over the White Sox. 

He then collected two hits including a two run 6th inning single, in a 4-0 Mets win where Zack Wheeler dominated after not being dealt at the trade deadline. The next night he drove in yet another run on a ground out, his 49th RBI of the year.

On August 3rd, Marcus Stroman made his Mets debut to much fanfare, with Ramos as his battery mate. But at the plate offensively is where Ramos really shined, having the biggest night of his career.

Ramos collected four hits with a total of six RBIs. His first was an RBI single in the 1st. In the 8th the Mets were down 3-2, when Ramos connected for a two run HR off Kyle Crick. 

In the 9th he cleared the bases with a three run double off Chris Stratton, sealing the Mets 7-3 win & starting another win streak. 

Two games later on August 6th, Ramos hit his 12th HR of the year, a 3rd inning three run shot leading the Mets to a 5-0 win behind Zack Wheeler's eight shut out innings. 

Quotes- Manager Mickey Callaway: I think its good that he's gone through spurts where he has been really hot & obviously really hot right now. He has a knack to driving in runs & it's all due to the fact that he can really do a good job of staying up the middle, staying on the ball & hitting it the other way when he needs to".

Ramos now had 58 RBIs, driving in runs was one of the reasons the Mets signed him for.

On August 9th, he singled in the bottom of the 9th off the Nats Sean Doolittle, with the Mets down 6-3. Todd Frazier followed with a three run HR to tie & Michael Conforto won it with a walk off hit. It was the Mets seventh straight win & 14th win in 15.

On his 32nd birthday he hit a HR to tie up an important game against the Washington Nats. His HR was a back to back shot following J.D. Davis. From there on, Ramos continued a hitting streak that went on for 20 games (as of 8/28/19).

It was the longest hitting streak in baseball that year & the longest hit streak in three years as well. 

Ramos had another four hit game on August 15th, driving in a run in a 10-8 Mets win over the Braves in Atlanta. On August 22nd he drove in both runs in a Mets 2-0 win over the Cleveland Indians completing a three game sweep.

Ramos would hit doubles in four of his next five games. On September 6th, he doubled in the 8th inning, extended the Mets to a 4-2 lead after Pete Alonso put them ahead with his single. 

Two games later he hit his 14th HR of the year, doubled and collected three hits in a Mets loss to the Phils. He had two more hits with another extra base hit the next night.

The Mets slowly fell out of the wild card race after a good run, Ramos would only drive in wo more runs on the season.

Wilson Ramos ended his first Mets season batting .288 with 14 HRs 19 doubles & 73 RBIs. He struck out 69 times whole walking 44 times with an .351 on base % & 52 runs scored. 

Behind the plate, he threw out 15% of would be base stealers & allowed the most stolen bases in the league (94).

Career Stats: In his ten year career he played in 901 games with 881 hits 123 HRs 140 doubles & 499 RBIs. He played in 853 games behind the plate throwing out 28 % of would be base stealers.

Family: Wilson & his wife have three children. Ramos also has two brothers who also play professional baseball. His brother Nathaniel, was also in the New York Mets organization.