After last night’s injury to Washington Nationals’ catcher Wilson Ramos, Nationals’ manager Dusty Baker talked about moving forward if the 29-year-old backstop is unavailable.
Though he didn’t know the extent of the injury to Ramos’s right knee at that point, Baker said he was obviously concerned by the reaction from his catcher on the field and the difficulty he had getting to the clubhouse even with the assistance of two of the team’s trainers.
“There’s always a level of concern when you lose a guy of that caliber,” Baker said, “but that’s why we have the depth that we have, and nobody is going to feel sorry for you. And so we’ve just got to — next man up — we’ve got some guys that have to pick it up some.”
The next man up, to the majors at least, is Nationals’ prospect Spencer Kieboom, the 25-year-old, 2012 5th Round pick who was until today the only member of the Nats’ 40-Man roster not in the majors this September.
In 94 games and 359 plate appearances at Double-A Harrisburg this season, Kieboom put up a .230/.324/.314 line with 11 doubles and five home runs in his fifth campaign within the Nationals’ organization.
Kieboom impressed Baker this Spring in his short time with the big league club.
The press release on his call-up describes him as “... a strong defensive catcher with advanced game-calling skills,” who has thrown out 34% of would-be base stealers in his minor league career.
Kieboom joins Jose Lobaton, who has struggled with injuries as well, and 23-year-old Pedro Severino on the major league roster, giving Baker a couple options should the injury to Ramos be as bad as it initially appeared.
Does Baker go with Lobaton full-time, or does he give one of the kids a chance to step up?