Washington Nationals: Five catchers that should be targeted

Wilson Ramos – Tampa Bay Rays

This would certainly be one of the more popular options the Washington Nationals could acquire this July. Wilson Ramos would be a perfect fit back in D.C., and one that we’ve discussed previously.

We saw him in the series against the Rays earlier this month. Back then, he received a well-deserved standing ovation for his time with the Nats.

The Buffalo could also end up being the Tampa Bay Rays All-Star representative at Nationals Park. He definitely deserves it, with a .290 batting average and nine home runs, which both rank top five for catchers.

All this while playing on a poor Rays club that seems intent on dealing its assets. We saw that when they traded away Alex Colome and Denard Span for fairly minor prospects.

Ramos has just a year left on his contract, and it would be incredibly surprising to not see him dealt. So the Nats would be extremely wise to make the call and see what the cost will be to reunite with their former catcher.

In our previous piece, we speculated that a high-upside, but still raw, player such as Telmito Agustin could be enough to tempt the Rays given the price on Colome and Span.

But when debating mid-to-lower tier prospects, it’s difficult to predict as it depends on the selling clubs preference. They may also want two lower end prospects instead of a slightly higher end to essentially have two swings at getting a potential major-leaguer.

But Ramos could well be one of the most cost effective rentals the Nats could go for. We saw in his previous spell with the team how much of a force he can be in the lineup and we’d love to have him back.