Washington Nationals: Should They Extend Wilson Ramos?

Wilson Ramos has had an incredible turnaround for the Washington Nationals. Is it worth their while to extend their soon to be free agent catcher?

Before the 2015 season, the Washington Nationals were expected to be a contender for the World Series. What nobody could have expected was for the New York Mets to finish 90-72, win the National League East, and make it to the World Series while the Nationals sat and watched. However, 2016 is a different year. As of now, Washington is substantially up on New York in the NL East. The Nationals are pushing for the playoffs.

The rock behind home plate in D.C. this year has been Wilson Ramos. The catcher has played 91 games batting .331 with 16 home runs; that is an astounding average for a catcher. Other than Ramos, the other catcher who has played significantly for the Nationals is Jose Lobaton, who has hit .197 in 26 games.

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Even though Ramos’ contract expires at the end of 2016, the Nationals have not negotiated with Ramos on a new deal, “They have told me absolutely nothing still,” said Ramos. “I’d like [to have my future here], but those are decisions they make … They haven’t made any calls or communicated with us. We’re still waiting.”

Ramos has been an elite catcher this season not just offensively, but defensively as well. For that reason, the Nationals would be taking a major risk not signing Ramos. If they sign their catcher long-term, that would make it much harder to sign Bryce Harper after the 2018 season. Ramos is 28 years old, so he is line for a contract that will probably be 4-6 years. That would mean Washington would still be paying him when they will try to sign Harper to a presumptive $300+ million contract.

The Nationals need to be realistic at this point because paying Harper that much will greatly hinder the rest of their team. If the Nationals are going to get rid of Ramos because they want to sign Harper, that is an incredibly dumb move. First of all, Harper might sign somewhere else. When the Nationals try to get rid of other quality players to sign Harper, only to have him sign elsewhere, they would highly regret dumping higher paid players. Secondly, paying a player that much is ridiculous because you are not able to build a team around him and that player might fizz out before the contract ends.

Ramos is a quality player, and it is much more likely that Ramos stays quality through 4-6 more years of a contract then it is that Harper plays well through 10+ years of a contract, getting paid probably around $300 million.

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In the end, the Nationals will probably end up taking the route of going for Harper because that is how baseball works today. Teams worry about having one great player than having multiple solid players. Will this decision come back to bite the Nationals? Probably.