Wilson Ramos has torn ACL, out for postseason

Dusty Baker confirmed today that Wilson Ramos has a torn ACL, according to CSN Nationals. Ramos suffered the injury during the Nationals’ loss to the Diamondbacks on Monday.

The Nationals, who have clinched the NL East, will have to turn to Jose Lobaton to fill in for Ramos, who hit .307/.354/.496 in 2016.

Ramos’ injury comes at a terrible time for the Nationals, as Stephen Strasburg and Daniel Murphy are both on the disabled list, while Bryce Harper is dealing with a thumb injury. Harper is expected to return this week, however.

There’s no doubting the kind of impact Ramos has had on the Nationals. At 28 years old, he’s become a top-level catcher in the game, posting a 37% caught stealing percentage (CS%) in 2016 with a career CS% of 34%, ranking ninth overall in all of baseball in active catchers. Ramos is also worth 3.2 bWAR this season.

Lobaton, in 35 games, has hit .220/.317/.363 this season. It’s fairly obvious that it will be hard to replace Ramos, especially in the postseason, but the Nationals will have to make do with the cards they have been dealt. Lobaton is not necessarily bad, per se, but when you have a catcher like Ramos on your team, any other catcher may pale in comparison.