I thought a healthy Wilson Ramos would have gotten four years and $60 million in this light free-agent class, as the best catching option available and one who was coming off a career year on offense. This deal, for two years and $12.5 million in guaranteed base salary, could be a huge bargain if Ramos is healthy enough to play regularly by June 2017. He'll earn up to $18.25 million if he hits all his incentives, well under fair market value for his kind of production even if it’s just over a year and a half of playing time. After Lasik eye surgery, Ramos improved across the board offensively, and behind the plate he continued to throw runners out at a well above-average rate. Baseball Prospectus’ framing numbers had him saving seven runs above an average catcher, a factor the Rays weigh very heavily in their decision-making.

The Rays have had two black holes on the field throughout their history, at catcher and at shortstop. This move should at least shrink the event horizon on one of them. Ramos played 131 games in 2016 and recorded 3.3 WAR, according to Baseball-Reference.com, which would be the highest for a catcher in Rays franchise history; the current leader is the immortal Toby Hall, who had a 2.8 WAR season in 2005. (WAR for catchers doesn’t include framing, and even if it did we wouldn’t have it for enough years for me to still mock how bad Tampa Bay’s catchers have been.) Last season, they didn’t have a catcher who produced 1.0 WAR; four guys caught for the Rays in 2016, and the best of them was Curt Casali, who “hit” .186/.273/.336 and was worth all of 0.9 WAR because apparently replacement level for catchers in 2016 was a slime mold someone found in the basement of the Oakland Coliseum. Ramos is an obvious upgrade.

The Rays tend to trade guys who get close to free agency, so their intention could be to get Ramos back to full health in 2017, let him bash for 80 or 90 games, and then flip him in the offseason as a one-year guy who’s making two-thirds of what he should be, given his productivity. I’m on board with that plan. Ramos isn’t going to be a Ray in 2019 if he’s the player I think he is, but while he is there, Rays fans should enjoy the rare sight of a league-average catcher in a Tampa Bay uniform.