The Tigers announced a series of roster moves Friday, designating right-hander Buck Farmer for assignment and selecting the contract of veteran righty Erasmo Ramirez in his place. Detroit also placed Wilson Ramos on the 10-day injured list due to a lumbar strain and recalled catcher Jake Rogers from Triple-A Toledo.
MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery wrote not long before the announcement that the Farmer-for-Ramirez shuffle could be on the horizon. It’s not a huge surprise, given the extent of Farmer’s struggles in 2021; the 30-year-old righty has been tattooed for 15 runs on 15 hits (six homers) and nine walks with 10 strikeouts in 10 2/3 innings so far on the young season.
Grisly as those number are, Farmer was one of the team’s better relievers from 2018-20. During that time, the former fifth-round pick tallied 158 1/3 innings of 3.92 ERA with continually improving control and ground-ball rates. Last year’s 15.7 percent strikeout rate in 21 1/3 frames was a career-low, but Farmer’s 5.6 percent walk rate and 52.2 percent grounder rate both represented career-bests. His 93.9 mph average heater in 2021 is down from its 95.1 mph peak in 2019 but also an improvement over last summer’s 93.3 mph mark.
On the whole, since Farmer established himself as a staple in the Detroit bullpen four years ago, he’s posted a 4.47 ERA, a 20.8 percent strikeout rate, a 10.7 percent walk rate and a 44.3 percent ground-ball rate. This year’s catastrophic results obviously weigh that performance down, but at his best he’s been a hard-throwing righty who can both miss bats and induce grounders at an above-average clip. Whether that leads to interest from another club can’t be known, but the Tigers will have a week to trade him or try to pass him through outright waivers.
Farmer is out of minor league options, so if another club does acquire him, he’ll need to be placed on the big league roster. He has more than the three years of service time needed to reject an outright assignment even if he goes unclaimed. However, as Woodbery rightly points out, doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of this year’s $1.85MM salary, as he doesn’t yet have the five years of service required to retain salary in the event of rejecting an outright. That salary might make it tough for Farmer to be claimed on waivers, and if he does pass through, he’ll surely accept the assignment rather than surrender the $1.44MM he’s yet owed through season’s end.
The veteran Ramirez will give the Tigers some depth as a potential long man in the ’pen or perhaps even in the rotation, should a need arise. He spent the 2020 season with the Mets and fared quite well, allowing just a run on eight hits and four walks with nine punchouts in 14 1/3 innings.
Ramirez, 31, has spent time in the big leagues with the Mariners, Rays and Red Sox as well, with his best season coming back in 2015-16 when he gave Tampa Bay a combined 254 innings of 3.76 ERA ball. He struggled in limited samples of work from 2018-19, but Ramirez has pitched in a variety of roles at the MLB level and on the whole carries a 4.31 ERA through 655 Major League frames.
From 2018-2020 he was passable. I wonder if any team will claim him?
There was demand for him at the trade deadline last year, but Big AL did not make a deal…
Shocking…Al didn’t make a deal because he is sooooo get at it. I am so sick of him, it’s making me ill thinking he will be around for a few more years.
Some team has to give this guy a shot. I mean the guy’s name is Buck Farmer, for heaven sake!
Yeah, one wonders if he raises deer or something.
I wonder if Rob Deer is his natural enemy?
The buck stops here.
Careful with spoonerisms with his name
Farmer heads to the farm
It’s pretty impressive that he has a -0.7 WAR already as a reliever in only 12 games.
Time for a career change. I’ve heard the handle ‘Buck Naked’ was recently vacated.
What happened to Buch Naked? Did he change his name to Art Vandeley?
Gruß,
BSHH
He became a city planner.
kept hearing about how he was able to warm up quickly in the bullpen. each time he came out he gave up five runs so I wonder if he should spend more time warming up
Probably a good gamble on Avila’s part (for once). Farmer would likely accept a minors assignment to keep his remaining $1.44 million, and that amount might serve as an impediment to a waiver claim given his awful performance this year. If he can turn it around in Toledo, the Tigers can always put him back on the 40 man.
Now that the minor league season has begun and alternatives are emerging, expect to see more of these moves (especially in Detroit).
It’s a bit sad, since Farmer was a long-time Tiger (who may be rushed as a starter back then). But the Tigers desperately need guys who eat more innings than Farmer did and ideally pitch a little bit better.
Gruß,
BSHH
if he had options I would say that the giants ought to claim him and see if they could fix him since the rotation has been amazing but the bullpen has been a little bit of a disaster and they could use some extra hands to throw in and give a shot
His name is Buck, but he’s pitched like… well…
The old gray mare…..
There have been two Erasmo Ramirez’s in MLB history
Yes, the first Erasmo was LH and played for TEX briefly. This RH version seemed to have a solid future in TBR. Then he became prone to serving up the HR and extra base hit.
Still, DET defense is no friend to pitchers. So much for a pitching-first rebuild. I thought the AJ Hinch crew would work to improve the defense and base running. Turns out to be just another gimmick hiring.
Are you sure the Country music playing in the clubhouse wasn’t by Buck Farmer ??
I want to think to that Norris might not be too far behind Farmer…..but then again he is left handed which has it’s rewards. Now if Miggy would just voluntarily retire we could start heading in the right direction. I don’t see him ever regaining his numbers.
My take – Tigers’ Son Owner hoping / praying / wishing / holding his breath until blue that Miggy gets hurt playing 1B to the extent insurance money eats one or more of the last 2.7 years left on the deal.
Son Owner (or Widow Owner) is too cheap to buy Miggy out. Retire? Yeah, surre, not happening since Miggy has all that fun joshing about at the first base water cooler with any ol’ passersby, of which there have seemed hundreds already. He’s going nowhere voluntarily. Home to his loving family? The punchlines there write themselves.
That’s why Miggy is not a DH, and that’s why he is out there every day, and also why he won’t be released. A big you-know-what from Son Owner to City.
That Long Term Contract Insurance Claims Adjuster must be on the Ilitch family’s speed dial, if not constantly on Son Owner’s mind. Calling that person is the next Front Office move regarding Miguel Cabrera.
I’d advise Son Owner to simply pretend Dad Owner left $90M less than he actually did, and spare us Earthlings this sad Miggy spectacle since it feels and looks a lot like Hank Aguirre lives again (at the plate).
More likely, the owners are hoping Miggy will put some butts in the seat as he approaches milestones in HR and hits. Next year will be a different story perhaps. For now, its been hard to fill those 8,200 seats as their play has been unwatchable.
I personally do not know anyone, not since 2016 give or take, who has specifically purchased a ticket to see Miguel Cabrera at Comerica Park.
No fair counting process servers.
Ramos’ injuries are occurring with more frequency. He’s wearing down
He’s having a BRUTAL year! Whoa. Braves, go get him and bring him home. Minor league deal is fine!!!! Low hanging fruit if you ask me. He’s gonna bounce back to some sort of norm and when that happens that’s a decent enough bullpen arm
Just realized a minor league deal isn’t likely gonna option. O well.. still think we should get him
It’s pretty amazing how he has been rocked like this… 15 innings is a pretty small sample size, but still, that’s really dreadful pitching.
Tigers could ruin any pitcher with that defense behind them. Ramirez is likely to be mediocre at best, it’s par for the course with this organization.
Announcers everywhere hoping for Farmer to retire so they don’t have to be exxxtra careful calling Tiger games when he is in…