MLB Trade Rumors: Where will the Rays trade Wilson Ramos?

In a recent analysis by Jay Jaffe for Fangraphs, there are several teams in need of a catcher this trade deadline and, my goodness, just look at all these teams who could use Wilson Ramos:

Among those teams, though, the only one who would really be willing to trade for Ramos is likely the Nats.

Most of the teams’ catchers who contribute to this list are holding their jobs through defense, and are as good as Ramos overall once you include framing (particularly with the DBacks and Indians), and the Mariners just got Mike Zunino back from the DL which is roughly equal to Ramos.

The Rockies, Brewers, and Athletics meanwhile have entrenched backstops unlikely to cede time to an acquired All-Star. That really narrows our focus to the Nationals and Red Sox, and we all know the Rays aren’t helping Boston improve.

So will the Nationals make a trade?

Unfortunately, catchers are always tough to trade at the deadline because they need to learn the staff. Fortunately, that’s why Ramos to the Nats makes the most sense.

Ramos has played well, but I still wouldn’t have expected anything more than a 40/45 FV type as the headliner if he was healthy.

The biggest problem here is the health of Wilson Ramos. The Nationals currently sit 5.0 games behind the Phillies in the NL East race. The Nationals are 5.0 behind the second wild card in the National League with seven teams between them and the playoffs.

The Nationals could really use Wilson Ramos. He has worked with most of the pitchers currently with the Nationals so the normal learning curve is less than you would typically expect. However the Nationals need him available yesterday.

If they were in the position of coasting into the playoffs like many expected coming into the year the injury could be written off as a move strictly about the playoffs, but that is not where the Nationals sit right now.

They need an answer, and Ramos is a delayed solution.