Tampa Bay Rays news and links: Rays sign potentially-best catcher in team history

The big news today for the Rays continues to be the signing of Wilson Ramos. Tampa Bay Times writer Marc Topkin talked about the signing, including quotes about what a good guy he is, and more importantly, some info on his connection to his nickname, “the buffalo:”

That moniker may come with some karma, too, as Ramos was taken in by the Cheyenne Indians [Dusty] Baker spends time with in Montana. "The buffalo is one of their sacred spirits," Baker said. "And they adopted Big Ramos and they brought him some artifacts and different things when we went to Colorado. That meant a lot."

On the more analytic side, Eno Sarris wrote about Ramos, talking about how an improvement in plate discipline drove his breakout season.

Links

• In his notes, Topkin talked about Kevin Cash’s comments regarding wanting speed in the outfield, and how San Diego’s Travis Jankowski could be a possible fit. Topkin had tweeted that earlier in the day, so jtmorgan wrote up an evaluation of Jankowski.
• Best part of those notes was Kevin Cash’s comment from his media session:

Playing off last year's incident in Chicago when LHP Chris Sale refused to wear — and actually cut up — a White Sox throwback jersey, and was disciplined for doing so, Cash said of his trade to Boston: "Our marketing department can now figure out when to do throwback jersey day. So we're good."

• The Yankees signed Aroldis Chapman to a really big five-year contract. There is an opt-out after 2019, though.
• Former-Ray Richie Shaffer’s offseason travels may not be over.

• The new CBA seems likely to prevent Shohei Otani, the best pitcher in Japan, from coming to the majors, writes Connor Byrne.
• Both we and The Process Report have talked about how nice it might be for the Rays to get Adam Eaton. Well, Washington got him instead. Eric Longenhagen scouted the return.

Trivia

As a team, Rays catchers have been very poor. In fact, since the Rays joined the league in 1998, no team has gotten as little fWAR from the catcher position.

But that doesn’t mean every Rays catcher has been terrible all the time. Can you name the top-5 catcher seasons by a Ray?

Hint: Three were Rays, two were Devil Rays.

Hint2: Remember that fWAR doesn’t count framing stats.

When you’ve taken your guesses, click here for the answer.