UP, UP IN THE AIR
Push on to get Mets’ Ramos to hit fewer ground balls
PORT ST. LUCIE — Between being a father to a newborn, tweaking his swing, altering his stance behind the plate and learning how to receive new pitchers, Wilson Ramos is tackling one of the busiest springs he can remember.
Ramos produced the league’s highest groundball rate (62.4%) among 135 qualified hitters in 2019.
The next closest was Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer (56.0%), who is at least 25 pounds lighter than Ramos and displayed a better chance at running out those grounders. Compare that to Angels centerfielder Mike Trout — who excelled at lifting the ball in the air and turned in the lowest ground-ball rate (24.3%) in the league.
Ramos has a history of knee injuries and, mixed with his lethargic speed on the basepaths, his tendency to keep the ball on the ground hindered his success at the plate. The 32-year-old Venezuelan catcher finished with 14 home runs and 19 doubles last year.
Mets fans, involved and critical of the catcher’s offensive production, shouted their disapproval from the stands and through social media. Ramos took notice, and he didn’t like it.
“I heard a lot of bad things last year about hitting the ball the other way and not putting the ball in the air,” Ramos said. “At some point,
I got pissed. But I have to take those bad things as a positive.
You can come back here and feel mad about the people talking about you, or you can come here and be the same person.”
Throughout his 10 years in the big leagues,
Ramos said he has always been motivated by the naysayers. So this past offseason, he took what the critics said to heart and it spurred a mechanical change at the plate. It took the catcher one month to tweak his swing, increase his launch angle and start hitting for power.
The early results: a long solo home run that traveled well beyond the left-field wall at FITTEAM Ballpark in West Palm Beach. It was his first homer of spring, and Ramos approved of the sweet swing that launched the ball into the sun. Between the supplemental use of technology and analytics like launch angle and exit velocity, Ramos said baseball is completely different than when he debuted for the Twins 10 years ago. “Years ago, people that hit for average were great players,” Ramos said. “Now, you can hit .300 with 10 home runs and 50 RBI and they don’t care. Now, if you hit 40 homers, .250 and 75 RBI, you’re one of the best players in baseball. So it’s totally different.” Ramos’ late grandfather, Jesus Campos, was the constant evaluator in the catcher’s life before he passed away in May 2016. Campos taught Ramos how to play baseball — which included pushing him to be disciplined and play “the right way.” His grandfather is the reason Ramos rises above the negativity and chooses to prove the critics wrong on the field.
The 32-year-old became emotional when talking about Campos. Ramos interrupted the interview to wipe his eyes, then lifted his sleeve that was covering a tattoo — a drawing of his grandfather’s face — on his left arm.
“All I got, the positive person that I am, that’s because of my grandpa,” Ramos said. “He motivated me to be like that, to always go in the right direction.
“So I never try to do too much. If I always do the right thing, then the right thing sticks. That’s how I was taught. That’s what I like to do. If people say something bad about me, I will do only good things.”
Ramos has made it a priority to become familiar with his pitchers — new and old — this season. In addition to tweaking his swing, Ramos is busy altering his stance behind the plate. He started resting his knee on the ground to provide a lower target for his pitchers. Ramos received a positive review from Noah Syndergaard — who last year preferred throwing to Rene Rivera — after his first spring start. His framing is another 2019 critique Ramos hopes to rise above.
When Ramos isn’t spending his days on the field, he’s spending his nights awake with his new son, Abel Ramos. One day last week, his son, who turned one month old on Valentine’s Day, cried through the night at the catcher’s spring training home in West Palm Beach. Ramos, too tired to make it in time for early clubhouse at Clover Park, joined the team at the Nationals’ complex for the Mets game that day. He hit his first home run of the year a few hours later.
The 32-year-old is juggling plenty of endeavors this spring that he hopes will be ironed out come Opening Day on March 26. Ramos understands, no matter how hard he works, people will always have something negative to say. But his grandfather already prepared him for that — and now he takes the critique in stride. “All those bad things, I just keep in mind and work to get better,” Ramos said. “That’s the only way we have to get better. Getting mad and still doing the same, then people will keep talking. If you show those people that you can do the right thing, they will always be quiet.”