TODAY: The Tigers have requested unconditional release waivers on Ramos, the team announced.
TUESDAY: The Tigers have designated catcher Wilson Ramos and righty Beau Burrows for assignment, according to a club announcement. That opens up 40-man roster spots for additions Wily Peralta and Miguel Del Pozo, moves covered in this post.
Ramos, 33, is a 12-year Major League veteran. The Tigers signed him to a one-year, $2MM deal back in January, and Ramos started the majority of the team’s games at catcher until going on the shelf on May 7th with a back injury. Ramos started strong, with six home runs in his first nine games. However, Eric Haase and Jake Rogers have proven themselves capable. The 28-year-old Haase, who was removed from the Tigers’ 40-man roster back in January, has already blasted eight home runs in 100 plate appearances.
Ramos has had a long, successful career, with his finest years coming as a member of the Nationals. He’s generally been regarded as a bat-first catcher, and posted a 105 wRC+ over a career-high 141 games for the 2019 Mets. He’s reached double-digit home runs in nine different seasons and has a pair of All-Star appearances under his belt.
Burrows, 24, was drafted 22nd overall by the Tigers back in 2015 out of high school, two spots ahead of Walker Buehler. Not long after that, Burrows was rated as a 60-grade prospect by Baseball America. Though he wasn’t particularly successful in the high minors, prior to this season BA still gave Burrows a 45 grade, saying, “Without a true out pitch, it’s hard to project Burrows as much more than a low-leverage reliever.” Unfortunately, the most memorable part of Burrows’ lone MLB outing this season was his vomiting on the pitching mound.
Wow was Ramos really that bad?
No. It was a the emergence of Haase and Rogers that brought this on. But, he’s also on the IL.
He’s a poor defensive catcher who seemingly can no longer hit. Not a good combo.
He seemingly had a 23 game hit streak in the last full season of baseball and his average is higher than 70% of major leaguers
Below average hitter, terrible at his position. What else is there to know?
does his mama love him?
Yes and the Tigers have two guys that are younger & are having success. He was a good signing but he’s not needed and his D sucks. The Tigers have Greiner at AAA & Dingler will be ready by 2022 to make his appearance 2023 full time.
That Avila wasted $2MM on him as a free agent is par for the course. Grossman has been a good pickup. Schoop is having a solid year. Tehran, Urena (5.00 ERA), Mazara, Ramirez, Ramos, and Nunez not so much. Two out of seven is not a good result for a GM. Time to let someone else put the finishing touches on this rebuild. I had wanted Cron and Rodon in the off season, along with Greene for the bullpen. I wouldn’t have hit on all of them but for someone with little analytical skills, I would have done better.
A cheap contract is never a waste. The Tigers are fortunate to have two young catchers that have shown promise in his absence and they no longer needed him.
Yes he was
Burrows designated his lunch for assignment last weekend
Beat me to it!
Ralph Burrows?
He has proven to be an effective hurler.
He’s better at throwing up and outside as opposed to down and inside.
amk1920 – Lettuce remember, he was full of baloney & didn’t have the bread to pay the rent.
Wow. Would think Burrows gets claimed.
They’d pull him back.
I don’t think so, because they would have to make another move to free up a roster space. Possible Burrows gets claimed but he hasn’t pitched well enough that someone should want to claim him.
Tigerdoc, He’s 24 and a former 1st round pick. Still time for development and decent chance to at least become a good bullpen arm. Would hate to see the tigers let him go so early.
Yes, I don’t think so is in response to pulling him back. I don’t think they pull him back. He certainly has not pitched well enough for anyone to want to claim him but it is possible someone takes a flier on him just to see if there is something there to work with.
He’s not good. 6 years in the system they know what he is & they have better pitching prospects.
But he’s a Tigers’ first-round pick. Not a real world argument.
Not how that works
They can’t just “pull him back” once he’s designated if their goal was to remove him from the 40-man roster. He’d have to clear waivers with no team claiming him. If he clears, then the Tigers can assign him to AAA, clearing a 40-man spot.
I bet Texas claims him.
Were any of these moves related to activating Fulmer? I seemed to have missed that post.
Del Pozo and Peralta were called up from Toledo and Candelario was activated off of COVID IL
They activated him yesterday. Optioned Isaac Paredes
Thanks. Never found it on this site. Weird.
I believe Parades was sent down a day earlier to make room for Alex Lange.
After the game Monday, Jason Foley was sent to the minors to make room for Candelario.
Ramos was unmotivated in New York. Seems it carried over to Detroit. Tigers, you’re a better team today without Wilson Ramos.
Or more likely, he’s a 33-year-old catcher with a bad back and fading skills.
Interesting set of moves. Tells me a couple of things. First, Boyd is probably going to miss more than 10 days and they are going to take things real cautious with him and Turnbull. Second, they are completing a rotation with calling up Manning and Peralta so likely the end of bullpen days. Ramos became expendable with the emergence of Haase and Rogers and they must feel Griener was closer to returning than Ramos as they would provide backup in case either Rogers or Haase gets injured. Burrows was not high on the Tigers list for awhile but apparently puking on the mound over the weekend sealed his fate. The Tigers probably would like to keep him in the system but are more than ready to move on from him if he is claimed.
If you’re the Mariners would you consider Ramos over Tom Murphy or Burrows over Wyatt Mills?
Mariners are loaded with catching depth. They’ve got cal Raleigh and torrens in AAA, and Godoy looks good. Just no sense in getting an old busted catcher on one of the youngest teams in the league.
Any competing team would take a back up catcher for $2 mil and any rebuilding team would take a 24 year old former top prospect… both of these guys should be claimed
He might be an upgrade from Curt Cassali in SF
Absolutely not. Casali can field his position and calls a good game. Very Jeff Mathis esque, he and Posey are a big reason why the pitchers are over-achieving in SF, alongside the excellent coaching staff.
Agree. SF is more than happy with Casali. No way they’d prefer a bat-first catcher that no longer has much of a bat to a guy that caught 5 straight shut-outs.
Well Bart Train isn’t ready yet. 25 Ks in 85 ABs in Sacto. Cassali has done most things well (catching shutouts is impressive) but has been an automatic out.
You do know he went 3 for 4 yesterday, right?
I need my Bucs to claim Burrows
Ramos is injured and probably could have been put on 60 day dl, bet they hope he slides through
Ramos could reject an outright assignment even if they wanted to keep him. They’re not trying to sneak him through waivers. They’re cutting bait on a poor defensive catcher who has a .238 OBP in 120 plate appearances. He’ll likely be put on release waivers in a matter of days.
The bad news for Ramos is that fellow veteran Jonathan Lucroy had a killer spring, and he’s still unemployed. Teams are putting much more emphasis on defense when it comes to catchers.
Giants should grab Ramos as backup catcher. Casali is a great guy and handles the pitchers well…..but, he is hitting .136 after three hits last night. More bat is needed in the lineup on the days that Posey rests.
No way. What a catcher does playing his position is vastly more important than what he does with the bat. The hitting is just a bonus. I guarantee you SF is plenty happy with Casali as Posey’s back up. They understand what’s important when it comes to the catching position, and will definitely not be interested at all in replacing Casali with Ramos.
Say that to Mike Piazza!
traveling man:
What’s your point? A catcher that hits well does not preclude him from being a good defensive catcher. Posey is a good example, as is Yadier Molina. And how many WS rings did Piazza win?
Mike Piazza was a good catcher and game caller. He looked very bad trying to throw out runners,
Piazza was a fine defensive catcher. He just couldn’t throw.
My original point was what a catcher does behind the plate was more important than what he does at the plate. @travelling man brought up Piazza from out of the blue, apropos of nothing.
I never said Piazza wasn’t a good defensive catcher. What I did say was, being a good hitting catcher didn’t mean he wasn’t good at the position. How is that saying Piazza wasn’t a good defender?
In retrospect my comment about Piazza not getting a ring was unnecessary, but otherwise I completely stand behind my post.
Prefer Tromp to both Casali & Ramos. Tromp looks like a useful backup guy to me.
My guess is, whomever the back up to Posey is, probably comes down to the pitching staff. At this point Casali appears to be their preference. But, in general, I agree. Tromp appears to be the back up of the future, with a little more development at Sacramento.
Tigers could have had Walker Buehler instead of Beau Burrows…this should serve as a lesson on not to draft a High School pitcher. UGH, another waste of a # 1 Draft Pick by the Tigers..BIG SURPRISE!!!
So the tigers were right to select college pitcher Andrew Miller (6th) over high school pitcher Clayton Kershaw (7th) in the 2006 draft?
No, tigers just make the wrong choice every time.
I dont understand letting burrows go and keeping derek holland.
Agree. Holland has been terrible since Burrows was drafted.
Yeah, Tork, Greene, Mize and Verllander were terrible choices Bob.
Those are about the only 4 successful picks in this century, but you left out Rick Porcello. However what about their other “outstanding picks” since 2000 such as Matt Wheatland, Kenny Baugh, Scott Moore, Kyle Sleeth, Ryan Perry, Jacob Turner, Chance Ruffin, Jonathon Crawford and now Beau Burrows? Plus the jury is still out on Derek Hill and Alex Faedo.
LOL
Since Andrew Miller was a key piece to the Tigers trading for Miggy in December 2007 I’d say yes.
The Giants started Casalli when he was hitting .103. That says a lot about his defense and his handling of the pitchers. He plays almost a third of their games.
The fact that the Tigers gave up on Burrows so soon makes me sick to my stomach, he had been hurling pretty well.
Well played
Yeah but he turned into more of a thrower (upper) than a pitcher. Ok, sorry.
Burrows would be a good option for an NPB, KBO or CPBL team. Maybe a AAA team as well.
Hmmm …. odd no news that he threw up on the mound last Saturday v the Whie Sox ….. coincidence …unlikely …….
Maybe he had been drinking? Or had a party problem and stayed out too late constantly ??
Never even considered that, but you could actually be on to something there. They optioned him to the minors immediately after the game, didn’t they? The entire thing did almost seem a bit too coincidental to me.
The hurl did not help his cause, but with the number of innings the bullpen put in during the Chicago series, they needed a fresh arm or two. No need to look deeper for things that aren’t there.
When Casali catches, the Giants pitchers have a 2.87 ERA. When Ramos catches the Tigers pitchers have 5.06 ERA. Sure the Giants pitching staff is better, but not 2.19 better. The difference between the teams is 1.25 this season. Plus, the Mets ERA was 4.95 last season when Ramos caught, and they have a good pitcher or 2.. No way Ramos’ bat is almost 2 runs per game better than Casali, and that’s what it would take to make up the difference in their contributions to the pitching game.
To me, a catcher’s defense and ability to work with their pitching staff is way more important than their hitting ability. Of course every team wants a catcher that can hit, but what you just wrote above is a good example of why their offense is secondarily important. Noah Syndergaard didn’t even want to pitch to Ramos when he was on the Mets… I don’t care how many home runs my catcher hits if my pitchers don’t even want to throw to the guy.
I see Burrows making it thru waivers and being assigned outright. I expect some catching needy team to claim Ramos, but if he does clear, I see him refusing the assignment and becoming a FA rather than sharing time at Toledo with Greinke.
I doubt anyone claims Wilson Ramos and assume the remainder of $2M. I remember the Mets pitchers preferred any other catcher but him to pitch to.
However, Beau Burrows will be selected by someone. As the article says, he has no out pitch. I think another organization can teach him better.
With three good catchers, no need for #4….good luck Mr.Ramos.
Ramos will definitely pass through waivers. Someone will sign him afterwards and let the Tigers foot the bill
what do teams see in Del Pozo? he’s never played well at any level.
Look at Del Pozo’s numbers at Toledo. He deserves a call up. It’s Manning and Burrows who should not be called up.
Some club will sign Ramos, But, they will wait until he is released so the Tigers pick up 2M and they pay him MLB minimum.
Burrows: Orioles? Twins? Rangers? Marlins? Pirates? D Backs?
Someone needs to teach Burrows @ least 1 “out pitch” for
him to even work in short bullpen stints.
I could see Cubs or possibly Atlanta taking a flyer on him.
So either way he will be a backup to Contreras
Agreed. Lobaton is not giving them offense or decent defense. Cubs should have never included Caratini in the Darvish trade. At this point they have to be thinking long and hard about Ramos and Lucroy.
Was thinking the same thing. There must be something about Lucroy besides declining skills that his phone has not rung. Cubs did make a mistake including Caratini as he is starter quality at the position. Yes I understand Lucroy is now a 220 hitter with eroding defensive skills and just a bench man that can play first too. Caratini is probably. 240 hitter with decent catching skills. This equates to being a top 30 catcher in the league. Cubs could have traded to get Taylor Davis back. Ramos is hurt. Either sign Lucroy or bring Wolters back up. Hopefully at the deadline there will be a backstop available worthy of getting.
Pirates’ Stallings is the first name that comes to mind. The perfect complement to Contreras would be Tucker Barnhart. Reds are clinging tenuously to the bubble, but if they become sellers he should be the Cubs’ prime target
Guess nobody would take a flyer on him for rest of salary, might end up signing a minor league deal back to heal up
I’m wondering would Ramos be a solid backup for the Brewers? I haven’t seen the guy play in a few years
Gives a new definition of the word hurler
More Avila winning, give that man a raise!
Look for Arizona to jump on him, then flip him in July with Kelly’s injury. Maybe the Twins.
“Flip” a guy that just got released by a terrible team and no one wants?
Burrows was claimed by the Twins off waivers this afternoon.
Also Ramos cleared waivers and is now a free agent.