Just over a week until they will begin their National League Division Series matchup against the Dodgers, the Nationals have suffered a major injury. All-Star catcher Wilson Ramos has torn his ACL, manager Dusty Baker told reporters on Tuesday.

The injury happened Monday night in a non-contact injury. Much like many ACL injuries, it was a total fluke, where Ramos jumped up for a throw and hurt the knee when he landed:

Here are four things to know:

1. The most obvious point ...

This is a major blow to the Nationals and their hopes for a deep playoff run. Ramos is firmly in his prime and having a career year. A first-time All-Star, he's hitting .307/.354/.496 with 25 doubles, 22 homers and 80 RBI this season for the Nationals. He's hit mostly fourth through seventh in the lineup, with fifth and sixth being the most heavy. So he's a middle-of-the-order hitter (fifth is where he's had his most plate appearances this season).

No one ever wants to lose a middle-of-the-order bat a week before the playoffs. That's a crushing blow.

With Ramos, though, it's more than just that. We're just about to the playoffs and that's when run prevention's significance is heightened. Ramos has logged 1,096 1/3 innings behind the plate with the second-best pitching staff (by ERA) in the National League.

Among catchers who get regular playing time, only David Ross, Rene Rivera, Miguel Montero, A.J. Ellis, Evan Gattis and Mike Zunino have a better catcher's ERA than Ramos' 3.46.

The replacement for Ramos will most likely be Jose Lobaton. He's only had 104 plate appearances this season and hit .220/.317/.363. He's a career .224/.302/.329 hitter. He's good defensively, so he's basically the true profile of a career backup catcher.

Dusty Baker could also use youngster Pedro Severino. He has very limited experience with the pitching staff at the big-league level -- which is why I believe it'll mostly be Lobaton -- but he's hit .350 with a 1.030 OPS in his first 25 plate appearances this season. Of course, he's a career .243/.294/.338 hitter in the minors, so that big slash line in the majors screams small-sample fluke.

So, basically, it's pretty crushing news for the Nationals in terms of the production loss.

2. They were already hurting

All-Star starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg is currently out with a strained flexor mass in his pitching elbow. Though he could be back before the NLDS, that seems a remote possibility as things stand. It looks like they'll be going into the playoffs without him, at least for the first round.

Further, the 2015 MVP, Bryce Harper, has been banged up for parts of the season -- his latest is a thumb injury that has him out of Tuesday's lineup -- and there have been reports that he's been playing through a shoulder injury for most of the season.

The Nationals going into a series with the Dodgers short of Ramos and Strasburg and with a limited Harper is quite a touch less than ideal, no?

3. This will have a great impact on 2017

As we know, Ramos is a catcher and the knees are of great significance for catchers. Given the timetable for a typical return from ACL surgery and him being a catcher, we're probably looking at him missing around two months of the 2017 season. He might even be out until the All-Star break, really. Though that might not end up a 2017 Nationals problem, because ...

4. This also impacts Ramos' immediate future

Ramos is set to hit free agency this coming offseason for the first time. His biggest competition on the open market was looking like Orioles All-Star Matt Wieters, but the ACL injury definitely mitigates things for Ramos.

The good news is ACL injuries rarely ruin careers in this day and age. Ramos will probably still get a pretty great payday from someone, but with him being down the first few months in the first year of his deal, that will certainly cut down millions of dollars from the offers that would have been streaming in.

Ramos was an All-Star catcher in a career year. Now he's going to be a 29-year-old catcher coming off ACL surgery. There's an impact there on the open market for sure.