Heliot Ramos has been battling a right thumb injury for the last week, telling reporters (including Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle) that the discomfort has factored into his lack of production over the Giants’ last few days. The thumb issue forced him to make an early exit from the Giants’ 6-4 loss to the Reds on Saturday and Ramos also didn’t play in today’s game. The outfielder is day to day for now, though since the Giants’ next off-day isn’t until August 16, the club might be forced into a 10-day injured list placement for Ramos if the swelling doesn’t come down.
A longtime staple of top-100 prospect lists, Ramos didn’t show much in limited MLB action in 2022-23, but he has fully broken out after San Francisco called him back up to the Show in early May. Ramos is hitting .285/.344/.491 with 15 home runs in 320 plate appearances, and this production earned him a spot on the NL All-Star roster. Ramos’ emergence has helped keep the Giants in the playoff race, so missing him for any amount of time (IL placement or not) is a blow to the lineup.
More from three of the Golden State’s teams…
- Reid Detmers posted a 6.19 ERA over his first nine Triple-A outings since he was optioned to the majors at the start of June, and the tough stretch continued when he allowed six runs in 3 2/3 IP in a start today with Triple-A Salt Lake. Prior to today’s game, Angels pitching coach Barry Enright told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that he felt Detmers’ slider and his mentality on the mound had been showing improvement, but it isn’t yet known if Detmers’ latest result might lead to at least one more tune-up outing rather than a promotion back to the majors. Detmers also had a 6.14 ERA in 63 big league innings this season, after solid results in 2022-23 had seemingly established him as a key piece of the Angels’ rotation. As Fletcher notes, if the Angels didn’t call Detmers back up until August 20, the team would lock in an extra year of control over Detmers. The southpaw therefore wouldn’t have enough MLB service time to qualify for free agency until after the 2028 season. While this is certainly a factor in whatever decision Los Angeles makes about Detmers’ development, it can be argued that the Angels have justifiable reason to keep Detmers in the minors, given his struggles.
- The Padres signed Carl Edwards Jr. to a minor league contract last month, and Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that the veteran reliever is taking a new step in his career by working as a starting pitcher. The right-hander has a 4.91 ERA over 22 innings and six starts, throwing at least four innings and 80 pitches in each of his last three games. Edwards began his minor league career as a starter, but he started just one minor league game from 2015-23, and never started any of his 295 career games or rarely even went beyond a single inning of work. As he approaches his 33rd birthday in September, Edwards’ ability to now work as a starter (or at least as a bulk pitcher or long reliever) could add a new wrinkle to his career, and provide the Padres with some unexpected rotation depth.
gbs42
Detmers “was optioned to the majors.”
Hmmm…
cr4
To be fair the angels do play like a triple A team most nights
RunDMC
Their AA team has more talent than a Troutless roster.
Bart
They Angels are 28-27 since June 1st. Pretty good for a team without Trout, Rendon, Sandoval, Stephenson and of course Ohtani.
RedFraggle
I like that you count Rendon in that group as if he’s actually capable of contributing anymore.
JoeBrady
28-27 but outscored 262-208..
its_happening
Rendon is contributing to the payroll.
layventsky
And a cooler name, the Rocket City Trash Pandas.
disadvantage
@gbs
No, that checks out for the Angels.
HalosHeavenJJ
Detmers was considered to be highly polished and pretty much MLB ready.
Thaiss had the most projectable swing in the draft.
Then the Angels coaches got ahold of them and implemented a lot of changes.
blackandorange
Or they scouting reports just didn’t pan out.
I understand that doesn’t fit your narrative, but it’s a lot more common than you’d like to think. *See: Casey Mize, Brady Aiken, Mark Appel, Tim Beckham, Luke Hochevar, Matt Bush, Delmon Young, Bryan Bullington.
And that’s just the Number 1 overall draft picks going back to 2000.
HalosHeavenJJ
I understand the draft is a crapshoot.
I also understand lots of players get better when they leave here but get worse when they get here.
Bart
Same moronic hate choir. The Angels have a nice handful of young talent. Schanuel, Neto, O’Hoppe, Joyce and Soriano.
myaccount2
Mize- injuries, Aiken- injuries, Appel- injuries, Bush- head case, Bullington- injuries.
None of these guys can be fairly compared to Detmers, who unfortunately has hit a wall this season performance-wise.
JoeBrady
The failed prospect approach doesn’t count here. Detmers was successful as a pro, but fell apart. It is not a matter of talent, it is a matter of figuring out what went wrong.
HalosHeavenJJ
Yeah, I was in a bit of a rage yesterday and posted this.
It is notable, however, that the AAA coaches fixed him last season not the MLB level ones.
RunDMC
I’m surprised AA hasn’t traded for Detmers. He loves these kind of high-upside/change of scenery guys and wouldn’t doubt seeing a future deal involving a salary dump for Detmers.
aragon
If the team really wanted to see Detmers improve why did it send him to mile high(almost) AAA?
LordD99
That is true. He’d be better off working on his slider, or any breaking pitches, in AA.
HalosHeavenJJ
Exactly
I hate the fact our AAA ballpark and MLB ballpark are so different. Then we wonder why guys fail right out the gate.
For hitters it is basically the Coors Field Hangover. For pitchers, they are afraid to pitch to contact because they are traumatized by SLC.
foppert2
Disappointing for Ramos. At least they brought in some cover in Canha. It’s almost like Giants management knows things that fans don’t.
talking baseball
Foppert,
Sometimes I think the Giants fans know things that management doesn’t.
Redstitch108* 2
Detmers problem is with command. He doesn’t locate well enough and hasn’t figured out how to break his stuff though or out of the zone. Leaving it in the zone or breaking it into the zone is too hittable in MLB.
sanfranb27
Doesn’t explain why he was so dominant in April and then got shelled. Something else happened…
Redstitch108* 2
Oh and command is NOT the same thing as control, which is generally defined as accuracy in throwing strikes. In that area, he is passable.
Chicken In Philly?
I’m surprised Edwards Jr. didn’t pitch on a major league roster this year.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Ramos is clearly the most exciting batter on the Giants’ roster.
scottn59c
I dunno – Tyler Fitzgerald is giving him a pretty good run for his money.
Jared Buck
Detmers’ arm is fine, His issues are entirely mental and he would benefit from a good sports psychologist. Of course, maybe he just has the yips and can’t get over it.,,wouldn’t be the first pitcher to retire because of this disease they call the yips.
layventsky
Maybe he’ll resurface in a few years as an outfielder a la Rick Ankiel.
MLB_Angel
I agree with you his arm is fine and he does have good stuff. . The mental side of the game is what is hindering his performance. Remember this is a game of failure and if your mentally strong you can go into a downward spiral very quickly. This is true in life in general.
MLB_Angel
mentally not strong i should say
JoeBrady
My gut feeling is that he (and several others) should’ve been traded. If the coaches can fix him that’s the best alternative. But his value decreases every day that they hold on to him.
Even including his woeful 2024 numbers, his 3-year run suggests a decent #3 with some upside. I wouldn’t mind my RS taking a hot in the off-season.
pohle
only way he is traded is under a new regime. i believe detmers is too in his head, he needs to find himself as a pitcher and let the confidence build up. his value is too low, unless someone offers a package better than what the marlins got for rogers he would have more value on the last four years of his rookie deal here.
Brew88
Pads certainly need to get some SP depth in the high minors, maybe this is one way to fill the need at least until Baez, Lizarraga, Mayfield, Bateman, Neighbors and Candiotti are ready.
CNichols
The good news though is they do have starting pitching locked up at the MLB level in the meantime. Waldon, Vasquez, and Brito are all pre-arb and controlled well into the future. Cease and King both have another year before FA and Darvish and Musgrove are still under contract for the next few years.
In all likelihood they’re going to need more than 7 SP to make it through 2025 so they’ll need some upper minors depth for next year, but Baez and Lizarraga are already at AA so they may be part of that depth equation sooner than we think.
They do a great job of picking and signing prospects, they just trade the vast majority away. A year or two of not aggressively buying would let the guys in rookie league progress a bit and some of the depth would come back into the system.