The Aftermath

Wilson Ramos is safe. If you asked me last week, these are words that I never thought I would get the chance to write - and am thrilled to do so. After a 51 hour ordeal, Ramos was returned, physically unharmed, to his family in Venezuela. In a scene out of a movie, police and military special ops engaged the professional kidnappers in a firefight at a small hideaway in the mountains of VZ.

For Wilson Ramos and the Nationals, life is ready to move on. But just how will the two move on from such a tragedy? Well, in my mind, there are just two ways this could go for the parties involved.

1. The Nationals, still early in the offseason, could go out and get an insurance plan for 2012. Go find a player like Pudge Rodriguez and bring him back on a 1-year deal purely to have a dependable backup in the event that Wilson Ramos is too emotionally scarred to handle the pressures of playing 6 out of every 7 games in the Big Leagues.

2. The kidnapping puts Ramos' life into perspective - things like family and religion take on a whole new meaning as he "lives life to the fullest". In this instance, Ramos would most likely play a looser game and be more comfortable on the field knowing that, in reality, it is just a game - not life or death. We would see a joy on Ramos' face as he soaked in every second of his dream.

(I'm not saying that both couldn't happen to some extent, either.)

It's hard to imagine that Ramos will be playing in the VZ Winter League just 5 days after being held hostage - but he is. Which makes me hopeful that we will see Ramos #2 - a kid playing a game that he loves.

Do you think the Nats should sign a veteran back-up for next year? Or do you think that Ramos will show little to no ill effects on the field?