The Mets traded right-hander Yohan Ramirez to the Dodgers in exchange for cash, per announcements from both teams. New York designated Ramirez for assignment five days ago. He’s out of minor league options, so he’ll go directly into L.A.’s big league bullpen. The Dodgers have not yet announced the corresponding transactions that’ll be necessary to add Ramirez to the roster. They’ll need to open both a 40-man spot and a 26-man spot.
Ramirez, 29, has split the 2024 season between the Mets and Orioles thus far, pitching a combined 14 1/3 innings with 11 runs allowed (6.91 ERA) on 14 hits and six walks. Those struggles notwithstanding, he’s set down 26.2% of his opponents on strikes against a 9.2% walk rate that’s less than a percentage point north of the 8.5% league average. He’s also averaged 95.3 mph on his four-seamer and 94.8 mph on his sinker while inducing grounders at a roughly average clip (42.1%).
The 2024 season is Ramirez’s fifth straight in the big leagues, though his status as an up-and-down arm in Seattle before he began to bounce around the league in journeyman fashion resulted in him only accruing two-plus years of big league service before he exhausted his slate of options. In 138 1/3 innings at the big league level, Ramirez has a 4.29 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, 12.2% walk rate and 44.6% grounder rate. The strikeout and ground-ball numbers are both a tick above average, but command has been an obvious issue for the right-hander throughout his time in the majors. This year’s 9.2% walk rate would be a career-low in a full season.
The Dodgers currently have six starters on the roster, including yesterday’s spot starter, Landon Knack. Speculatively speaking, he could be sent back to Triple-A Oklahoma City to open a spot on the active roster, but they’ll still need to open a 40-man spot. Los Angeles has already been without right-hander Bobby Miller for nearly six weeks; he’s throwing bullpen sessions, but if they anticipate his absence stretching beyond June 10, they could transfer him to the 60-day injured list to accommodate Ramirez. If not, they’d likely need to designate someone for assignment.
The relief corps in L.A. is quite banged up at the moment, with each of Brusdar Graterol, Evan Phillips, Joe Kelly and Ryan Brasier on the injured list. They’ve patched things over with multiple acquisitions cut from the same cloth as this Ramirez pickup. Minor league signee Elieser Hernandez was recently selected to the MLB roster, and the Dodgers acquired lefty Anthony Banda for cash just days ago and added him to the big league ’pen as well. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is no stranger to regularly shuffling the deck with the final few spots in his bullpen, so further turnover and short-term, stopgap acquisitions shouldn’t come as a surprise — at least while more established relievers like Phillips and Graterol continue to mend.
Ramirez traded for Cash. That Cash fella sure gets around!
Dave, Kevin, and Norm.
Johnny.
Where I come from, Johnny Cash is a pay toilet.
Pot ,meet kettle
yep
It’s just as good as money!
Norm Cash — Davey Cash — Kevin Cash — All available!
And the Mets settle for … money?
I guess Steve Cohen needed $ to buy a Yugo or another cheap reliever (about as useful as a Yugo).
He’s now known as ATM Ramirez.
You pop in his baseball card into the machine and out comes money.
Cleveland did it in a Seattle ATM May ‘22.
Pittsburgh did it in a Cleveland ATM June ‘22.
The Mets did it in a southside Chicago ATM Dec ‘23.
Baltimore did it in a Queens ATM April ‘24. And now the Chavez Ravine residents have done it in a Queens ATM again.
I wonder what team cap Topps will paint on his head when next year’s cards come out?
Actually, Norm is dead. Not available.
@ fortheloveofthegame; “we’re not talkin bout a game!”
2020, 2020! They won it in 2020.
Did they thoughhhh….
Well they got further than your team!
Yes, they won the World Series the year that the Government shut everything down for no good reason.
You got a bunch of PPP handouts, aka free money, what are you complaining about for?
Let’s try your comment but add some facts. They won the world series the year of a pandemic. There we go, facts inserted.
Just thinking or so you say: yes, they really won the World Series.
Let’s see them win on a full season with fans. For now it’s 2020* WS Champions
Why the asterisk? The postseason wasn’t shortened. They had to win an extra series, they beat the 2nd best team in the NL, then the Braves, then the best team in the AL, who had beaten both the Yankees and Astros to get to the Series. And they didn’t get home field advantage. So is that asterisk because it was harder to win the Series that year?
Dodgers BP gotta always have 2-3 suspect RP for some reason.
The 26th roster spot seems to be a revolving door of relievers. I can see the logic in it to not overwork your core relievers.
He’ll pitch 2 games then get cut. It’s just cash.
By end of season the Dodgers will have rostered 495 guys, 95% of which will be flash-BP exchanges
Dodgers also in a six man rotation with five starters and bullpen games. To do that you have to replenish bullpen with marginal DFA reliever types and AAA pitchers. Has worked so far. They’re willing to lose a few more games to keep starting pitching fresh.
“They’re willing to lose a few more games to keep starting pitching fresh.”
Wow–that’s a bold strategy, Cotton.
Ah, the same strategy as the White Sox, Rockies, Mets, and Marlins?
“Hey, we lost again, but our starter for tomorrow’s loss will save the bullpen a little.”
It’s a necessary evil to keep Yamamoto on typical Japanese league schedule and avoiding injuries with injury prone Glasnow and Paxton. On top of that you have young guys in Miller and Stone to put kid gloves on. Lastly you have Buehler who hasn’t pitched much in last 2 years and so far on 75-80 pitch limit. Only a handful of starts have been made with less than 5 days rest.
We’ll see if strategy works. Smith also getting more rest behind the plate. Dodgers are done with maximizing regular season wins.
Hehe. Yeah that strategy won’t work as well for teams like Marlins and Rockies in most years.
lester,
Most people are able to understand the concept of balancing the present and future.
It has been pretty apparent the past several years that the Dodgers starters haven’t held up very well by the time they reach the postseason. When making the postseason is almost a sure thing, it absolutely makes sense to pace the starting pitching staff so they’re not burned out by the time October comes around. Especially when guys like Glasnow and Miller are likely to reach career highs in innings this season, while Buehler and Kershaw are coming back from injuries.
Why dod people still freak out about these type of moves? You need about 20-30 relievers to get through a season and the Dodgers don’t really have relief prospects in the upper minors.
Still mad about 2020, I see. I knew it would bother some when they won it then. I didn’t think they’d still be obsessing about it four years later.
idk, my team hasn’t won since 1986 and I wouldn’t be content with them winning in 2020 after all those years. Every team had the same chances to win it all but it wouldn’t have felt as victorious to me personally
nypapi
” I wouldn’t be content with them winning in 2020 after all those years. ”
Luckily, the Mets didn’t even make the playoffs in 2020. Let alone win them.
Imagine how embarrassing that would have been, if they had.
I’ll take “things that aren’t true” for $1000, Alex
I couldn’t care less that they missed the playoffs that year, it was a weird season to begin with and I’m used to my team sucking most years anyways
It’s actually Ken now. You’re point is still made though.
nypapi
As I said.
I’m so glad you were spared the embarrassment of your team making the playoffs and winning the World Series in 2020.
Much better to have been bad that year!
I mean, really, just imagine winning games in both the regular season and the playoffs. What a bunch of losers.
Are you a dodgers fan or something cause it really ain’t that deep. Like I said every team had the same chances and it’s my personal opinion, not everyone sees eye to eye on this but to me 2020 felt like an irrelevant extended spring training
ny papi
Agreed.
Winning regular season games in 2020 was meh
But, winning playoff games was for total losers.
Awesome job by the Mets for not being total losers by losing in the regular season and not even making the playoffs.
Who’d want to win? Pfft.
I’m glad the 60 game no fans in attendance season meant something to you but like I’ve mentioned twice already its my own opinion. I barely watched any games that season and that wouldn’t have changed even if the Mets squeaked into the playoffs
ny papi
Well, lucky for you and them they didn’t
Imagine how embarrassing it would have been to have been good that season instead of bad.
Really dodged a bullet.
Pretty sure the Mets didn’t need the cash
Jesus christ
How many times have the muts dfa’d, re-signed, & traded this guy in 6 weeks??
JHC is dead, so he doesn’t care.
@bluebaron; WOW, big shot!
Christians certainly think he is.
The supposed haters talk about 2020 more than Dodger fans. I think they’ve moved on since it’s been 4 years. How many players are on the team still from 2020? Less than 5?
Still won more postseason games than any other team. If one team was automatically going to the postseason, it’s the one with that many consecutive division titles. Stop whining about the past like an old wife.
Remember when Rob Manfred said the 2020 trophy was just a hunk of metal that doesn’t mean anything?? It’s about the only time he’s ever been right.
Ignorant
“Remember when Rob Manfred said the 2020 trophy was just a hunk of metal that doesn’t mean anything??”
No. Because he didn’t say that.
Mets have the richest owner in MLB and he’s collecting cash for his cuts. Shrewd.
And what “type” is that? (considering that your username refers to disposal of protection)
another happy well adjusted adult
So weird how we arrived here following a fairly routine trade of a fringe MLB player for some undisclosed pittance of $.
Damn. Another user I’ll have to mute. Growing list.
I have never met him, so I have no idea if your description of Cohen is apt or not.
But what does it have to do with trading a player for monetary considerations???
It just means that no one offered a prospect in return so they are getting what they can on a player that they already decided to cut.
Take your antisemitism and shove it. Delete your account and go back to 4Chan.
With the way the dodgers luck works watch him and Banda both become shut down relievers
Luck?
Why does it seem like the Dodgers just pants-ed the Mets? The Dodgers want one of your pitchers and Cohen needs cash?
It was a DFA situation, so it’s a matter of taking the best offer they can get.
The Natural
It doesn’t seem like that.
Ramirez is a replacement level player. The Dodgers got him for a replacement level cost.
Well, its a cliche, but Mets are gonna Met. LMAO.
Are you just being a tool or did you really laugh your a** off because a reliever was traded for cash?
Bye, bye Banda
I doubt you’d be saying that if you were a Dodgers fan.
Don’t mess with the Yohan
The big question remains: what do they do with Chris Taylor? Still carrying a sub .100 BA into late May. Something’s gotta give.
solaris
they first thing they do is not look at batting average.
They are looking at things like swing decisions, bat speed and path, and batted ball velocities and trajectories.
If they don’t see signs of improvement in his approach by the trade deadline, I’m pretty sure he’ll be gone. They’ll continue to give him some opportunities until then, but even those have been significantly reduced this month.
Nobody outside of the Dodgers knows what is going on with him, so I don’t think we can comment on his approach. No physical issues have been mentioned but it seems unlikely that he suddenly forgot how to hit a baseball. Even the Dodgers are unlikely to cut a player at the cost of $30M and not especially when they have the luxury of working around him for now and hoping with time that whatever it is will be made right.
He’s 2 out of his last 5 ABs. Being facetious but it just shows you how humbling baseball can be and makes you respect those that can put up consistently great numbers year after year. Taylor is not this terrible we all know that and this is still a very small sample size compared to his Dodger career numbers. He’s older but it’s not like his skills have deteriorated this much after a productive 2023 season.
Given his contract and past performance he’s a guy that you should keep as long as possible to see if he can get it going. Dodgers are not trying to maximize regular season wins, but rather get their best 26 for postseason and you’d think a productive CT3 is part of that 26. So, not a bad strategy for patience and see how it shakes out. If he can’t shake out of it by later in season I’d think a roster move is made but still a bit early for that in my opinion.
Not sure why Dodgers wouldn’t just have claimed Mike Baumann instead. Orioles just dfa’d him to make room for Grayson Rodriguez. Maybe another team put claim in first? No way that dude makes it through waivers and he has significantly more upside than Yohan
@gorav
It’s not first come first served on waiver claims. Goes by position in the standings. And Baumann’s claim period may not be up yet. Wasn’t he DFA’d 2 days ago?
Dodgers are near last so another team may grab him first. Waiver period is 3 days so we should know soon what team claimed him or if Os found a cash trade partner
Yohan Ramirez can resume his assault on the record book for hit batsmen. He now has 27 HBP in 138.2 career IP. I believe this is the highest HBP rate in baseball history for any pitcher with more than 100 career IP.
Maybe the Dodgers got him hoping that he could accidentally on-purpose injure Bryce Harper or Ronald Acuna somewhere down the line.
They don’t have to take out Acuña, he’s getting himself out.