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A.J. Ramos

AJ Ramos Announces Retirement

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Reliever AJ Ramos is retiring from professional baseball, he announced this afternoon (on Twitter). “Everyday you get to play/live truly is a blessing,” Ramos wrote as part of his statement. “The ability to enjoy the process is a big part of being successful because you soon realize that every setback or failure is just an opportunity to learn and get better. So I am thankful for my failures just as much as my success, beyond grateful for my time playing baseball.”

Ramos began his professional career as a 21st-round pick of the Marlins out of Texas Tech in 2009. Despite not being a high draft pick, the right-hander pitched his way to the majors within three years. Ramos made 11 appearances with the Fish late in the 2012 campaign, and he emerged as an important and effective late-inning option by the following year.

The 2013 season marked Ramos’ first of four straight seasons working at least 64 innings with an ERA no higher than 3.15. He held opponents to a pitiful .194/.303/.277 slash line over that stretch, allowing a cumulative 2.64 earned runs per nine. The Lubbock native punched out 27.4% of batters faced at a time when the league-wide strikeout rate for bullpen arms was about five points lower. Ramos emerged as Miami’s closer by 2015 and he was selected to the All-Star game during a 40-save 2016 campaign.

Miami traded Ramos to the division-rival Mets in advance of the 2017 trade deadline. His numbers ticked down in Queens, particularly in 2018. He never seemed fully healthy that season, and he was diagnosed with a labrum tear in his throwing shoulder that June. That required season-ending surgery, one from which Ramos didn’t appear to ever fully recover.

After missing all of the 2019 campaign rehabbing, Ramos announced he was attempting a comeback in July 2020. After successive stints with the Dodgers and Cubs didn’t result in a big league look, he was rewarded for his perseverance with a late-season return to the majors as a Rockie. He signed a minor league contract with the Angels last season, and Los Angeles brought him up for the final week of the year.

Ramos returned to the Anaheim organization on another minors pact this offseason. Unfortunately, he suffered a torn capsule in his shoulder last week. Ramos quipped in his retirement announcement that he “gave it (his) all until (his) arm gave out … then threw two more pitches just to make sure.” It’s certainly not how the 35-year-old would’ve wanted his career to wrap up, but there’s no question he had a successful run.

Altogether, Ramos appeared in parts of nine big league seasons, working 373 1/3 innings across 381 games. He struck out 430 hitters, saved 99 games, held 46 more leads and posted a 3.04 ERA. Ramos had a four-year stretch as one of the more quietly effective relief arms around the sport, and while injuries plagued the late stages of his career, he was rewarded for his comeback efforts with late MLB looks in each of the last two years. MLBTR congratulates Ramos on his career and wishes him the best in retirement.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Angels’ AJ Ramos Diagnosed With Torn Shoulder Capsule

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Veteran right-hander AJ Ramos, who’s in camp with the Angels as a non-roster invitee, has been diagnosed with a torn capsule in his right shoulder and will likely be out for the entire 2022 season, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com).

It’s a disheartening setback for the clearly talented but oft-injured Ramos, who has managed just 27 innings total over the past four seasons — due primarily to troubles in that same shoulder. Ramos hit the injured list around Memorial Day 2018 while pitching for the Mets, and just three weeks later it was announced that he was headed for surgery to repair a torn labrum. The right-hander went more than two years between big league appearances while rehabbing that injury, and he’s only made it back to the mound for sparse looks with the Rockies (2020) and Angels (2021) in that time.

Now 35 years old, Ramos was an All-Star with the Marlins back in 2016 and, for a few years, was one of the more effective relievers in the National League. From 2013-16, he tallied 278 1/3 innings of 2.62 ERA ball while racking up 72 saves and punching out 27.4% of the opponents he faced. Walks were an issue even at that point (12.6%), but Ramos’ ability to miss bats and limit hard contact helped him to offset that penchant for free passes.

Back in 2020, Ramos told reporters: “[Earlier in my career], I was motivated to show everybody that I was good enough. Now, I’m motivated just to play — to have the max amount of fun doing it.”

There should be no doubt that Ramos, who has a 3.04 earned run average, 99 saves, 46 holds and a 27.2% strikeout rate in 373 1/3 career innings, is “good enough,” to use his own words. The question at this point is simply one of whether he’ll embark on yet another comeback attempt next year in what would be his age-36 season.

Angels Re-Sign AJ Ramos To Minors Deal

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The Angels have signed right-hander AJ Ramos to a minor league deal, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports (via Twitter).  The contract contains an invitation to the Halos’ big league Spring Training camp.

Ramos first signed with the Angels on another minors contract just prior to Opening Day 2021, and the righty finally cracked the big league roster and appeared in four games over the final week of the regular season. Between his 4 2/3 innings with Anaheim last year and 2 2/3 innings with the Rockies in 2020, it at least represents some foothold back in the Show for Ramos after he missed most of the 2018 season and all of the 2019 season recovering from shoulder surgery.

Prior to that injury, Ramos was a standout member of the Marlins bullpen from 2013-16, posting a 2.62 ERA over 278 1/3 innings in those four seasons.  Ramos served as the team’s closer in the last two of those years, racking up 72 saves and earning an All-Star nod in 2016.

Ramos wasn’t great at in the minors last season, with a 5.26 ERA and 10.6% walk rate over 53 frames for Triple-A Salt Lake.  However, clearly the Angels liked enough of what they saw (perhaps in the form of a 31% strikeout rate) to bring Ramos back for another run in Spring Training, at the no-risk cost of a minor league contract.  Even if he doesn’t make the Opening Day roster, the Halos might again keep Ramos around as Triple-A depth.

Angels Select AJ Ramos

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The Angels announced they’ve selected veteran reliever AJ Ramos to the big league roster and recalled bullpen mate James Hoyt from Triple-A Salt Lake. José Marte and Sam Selman were optioned to clear active roster space. Los Angeles also reinstated rookie southpaw Reid Detmers from the COVID-19 injured list and optioned him to Salt Lake.

Selecting Ramos and activating Detmers required opening a pair of spots on the 40-man roster. To do so, the Angels transferred Justin Upton and Dylan Bundy from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.

Ramos is in the majors for the first time this season. He’s best known for his early-career days with the Marlins, with whom he began his big league career in 2012. The right-hander was electric from essentially the outset of his career, ascending to the closer’s role within a couple seasons and earning an All-Star nod in 2016. Over his first four-plus MLB seasons, Ramos posted a 2.66 ERA/3.15 FIP across 287 2/3 innings of relief.

Halfway through the 2017 season, Miami traded Ramos to the division-rival Mets. He had a decent year but fell off a bit from his previous pace. Ramos struggled badly through the first couple months of 2018 before it was revealed he’d suffered a labrum tear in his shoulder that necessitated surgery.

That procedure kept Ramos out of action for more than two calendar years. He began a comeback attempt in 2020 and landed successive minor league deals with the Dodgers and Cubs. While neither of those stops resulted in a major league opportunity, Ramos did get back to the bigs late in the year with the Rockies. He made three appearances with Colorado last September, his first MLB action in 28 months, and signed a minor league deal with the Angels over the offseason.

Ramos has spent the entire season with Salt Lake. The 35-year-old has avoided the injured list and logged 53 innings over 42 outings, pitching to a 5.26 ERA in a very hitter-friendly environment. Ramos has been extremely fly ball prone and has issued a few too many walks, but he’s continued to miss plenty of bats. He’s punched out 31% of opposing hitters on the strength of a big 15.4% swinging strike rate, and the Angels will give him a late chance to demonstrate his form against big league opponents.

As with last season’s stint in Colorado, it’s possible Ramos’ stay with the Angels will be quite brief. He’s scheduled to hit free agency again at the end of the season. The late-season look will allow him to showcase his current caliber of stuff before he reaches the open market.

The IL transfers officially bring Upton’s and Bundy’s seasons to a close. It was a third consecutive down year for Upton, who hit .211/.296/.409 with seventeen homers over 362 plate appearances. His campaign ends prematurely because of a right lumbar strain.

Upton will return to Anaheim next season on a $28MM salary, the final year of his deal. The Angels have youngsters Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh at the big league level, and Mike Trout is expected back at full strength. It’s possible Upton’s role is curtailed a bit moving forward, although he still brings enough right-handed pop to contribute in a part-time capacity.

It’s an especially disappointing end for Bundy, who expressed confidence two weeks ago that he’d make it back to the mound before the end of the year. Instead, his final five weeks will be wiped out by a shoulder strain. It ends a season in which Bundy threw 90 2/3 innings of 6.08 ERA ball, a massive drop-off from a 2020 season in which he picked up some down-ballot Cy Young support.

The career-worst showing couldn’t have come at a worse time for Bundy, who’ll hit free agency for the first time this winter. It’s possible the 28-year-old will be limited to a one-year deal in an attempt to rebuild his value before re-testing the market during the 2022-23 offseason.

Angels Sign AJ Ramos

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MARCH 27: The Angels have announced the move.

MARCH 24: The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent righty AJ Ramos, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). He’ll head to the Halos’ alternate training site to begin the 2021 season.

Now 34 years old, Ramos was an All-Star closer with the Marlins back in 2016. He had a terrific six-year run with the Fish, pitching to a combined 2.78 ERA and racking up 92 saves over the course of 327 1/3 innings of work. However, his shoulder began giving him troubles not long after a 2017 trade to the Mets.

By the summer of 2018, Ramos was headed for surgery to repair a torn labrum. He missed all of the 2019 season as a result of that procedure, but he did make it back to the big leagues for three games with the Rockies in 2020, allowing a run on four hits and three walks with one strikeout through 2 2/3 frames.

Ramos has pitched just 22 1/3 innings since the 2017 season concluded, but given his track record there’s little harm in taking a look at whether he can return to form now that he’s more than two full years removed from surgery. Control was always an issue for Ramos, as evidenced by a bloated 12.6 percent walk rate, but he also punched out 27.6 percent of his opponents as a Marlin — at a time when the league-average strikeout percentage was far lower than today’s 23.4 percent. At his best, in 2015, Ramos punched out 31.4 percent of his opponents against a career-low 9.4 percent walk rate.

Pitching Notes: Kluber, Teheran, Ramos, Mets, Hand

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The Royals and Giants were among the previously unreported teams that were on hand for free-agent right-hander Corey Kluber’s well-attended showcase on Wednesday, per reports from Alec Lewis of The Athletic and Mark W. Sanchez of KNBR. Most of the league’s clubs showed up to watch Kluber, a two-time AL Cy Young winner who’s coming off a pair of rough years because of multiple injuries. Kluber reportedly looked healthy during his throwing session, though, and could sign with someone in the near future.

  • Righty Julio Teheran will hold his own showcase for teams Tuesday in Miami, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. The former Braves innings eater typically did a nice job keeping runs off the board in their uniform from 2011-19, which led the Angels to sign him to a one-year, $9MM guarantee last offseason. The move didn’t go well at all for the Angels, however. The 29-year-old Teheran threw 31 1/3 innings with the team and finished last among all pitchers with 30-plus frames in ERA (10.05) and second from the bottom in K-BB percentage (2.7).
  • Kluber’s event also included Anthony Swarzak, Steve Cishek and, as Cishek revealed on MLB Network Radio on Thursday, AJ Ramos. The right-handed Ramos was an excellent reliever with the Marlins earlier in his career, especially from 2012-16, but has struggled in the bigs with a couple of other teams since then. After missing a large portion of 2018 and all of 2019 with shoulder problems, Ramos returned last season to spend time with three different organizations in the Dodgers, Cubs and Rockies. The 34-year-old returned to the majors as a Rockie in late September and threw 2 2/3 innings of one-run ball and a strikeout, though he allowed four hits and three walks in that short span.
  • The Mets have not bowed out of the race for free-agent reliever Brad Hand, Andy Martino of SNY tweets. As of earlier this week, Hand was discussing multi-year deals with teams, but the Mets were hoping to reel in the lefty on a one-year contract worth less than $10MM. With Hand as one of the standout relievers on the open market, the Mets may have to up their offer if they’re going to land the three-time All-Star.

Rockies To Promote AJ Ramos

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6:17 pm: Ramos’ promotion has been made official. Roster space was opened by the designation of right-hander Wade Davis for assignment.

1:02 pm: The Rockies are preparing to call right-hander AJ Ramos up to their active roster, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).  An additional move will need to be made to create a space for Ramos on the team’s 40-man roster.

After a couple of false starts, it looks like Ramos is finally set to make his return to the majors after almost 28 months.  The righty underwent shoulder surgery in 2018 after a rough 19 2/3 innings with the Mets that season, and was off the radar until this summer, when he inked minor league deals with both the Dodgers and Cubs.  Neither of those contracts led to a Major League call-up, however, and the Rockies signed Ramos to yet another minors deal after the Cubs released him in early September.

Ramos turns 34 tomorrow, so the promotion is a nice birthday present for the former All-Star.  Ramos posted some strong numbers with the Marlins from 2012-17 (including a 2.78 ERA, 2.19 K/BB rate, and 10.4 K/9), though his productivity dipped in 2017, particularly after a July trade to the Mets.  The 22-28 Rockies are on the verge of being eliminated from postseason contention, so there’s nothing to be lost in seeing whether or not Ramos could potentially be a candidate for their 2021 bullpen.

Rockies Sign AJ Ramos

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SEPT. 7: Ramos has signed a minor league deal, the Rockies announced. He’ll join their 60-man player pool.

SEPT. 4: The Rockies have signed free-agent reliever AJ Ramos, Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com reports. It’s presumably a minor league contract for Ramos, whom the Cubs released from a minors pact Thursday.

Ramos’ best years came in Miami, where he debuted in 2012, logged sub-3.00 ERAs and accumulated 64-plus innings in each season from 2014-16, and piled up 92 of his 99 career saves. But Ramos fell off substantially in 2017 between the Marlins and Mets, who acquired him in advance of that year’s trade deadline, and endured a career-worst 2018 before undergoing shoulder surgery.

Ramos hasn’t pitched in the majors since he went under the knife, but the 33-year-old right-hander has latched on with three teams over the past few months during his comeback attempt. Deals with the Dodgers and Cubs didn’t lead to MLB opportunities for Ramos, but perhaps he’ll get a chance to join a Colorado bullpen that entered Friday with the bigs’ second-worst ERA (6.58).

Cubs Release Cody Allen, A.J. Ramos; Outright Josh Phegley, Ian Miller

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The Cubs have released right-handed relievers Cody Allen and AJ Ramos, Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com was among those to report. They also outrighted catcher Josh Phegley and outfielder Ian Miller to their alternate site after the pair cleared waivers, Jay Cohen of the Associated Press tweets.

Allen, who signed with the Cubs in July, was a dominant closer during his heyday. The former Indian logged a sub-3.00 ERA in each season from 2013-17 and racked up 122 saves during that span. Allen totaled another 27 saves in 2018, his final season with the Indians, but his production tailed off significantly then and continued to worsen during a 23-inning run with the Angels in 2019. The Halos signed Allen to an $8.5MM contract before last season, but after he struggled to a 6.26 ERA/8.38 FIP with 7.83 BB/9 and a career-worst 92.3 mph average fastball velocity, they released him in June. The 31-year-old hasn’t pitched in the majors since then.

Ramos, who will turn 35 on Sept. 20, had a terrific run in Miami from 2012-17, when he notched 99 saves and posted a 2.78 ERA in 327 1/3 innings. They traded him to the Mets in the last of those seasons, though, and Ramos proceeded to slump to a 5.59 ERA in New York over 38 2/3 frames in parts of two seasons. Ramos hasn’t pitched in the majors since May 2018 after undergoing shoulder surgery, though he hoped to make a return to the bigs as a member of the Cubs. He’ll now have to try to latch on elsewhere if he still plans on continuing his career.

Both Phegley and Miller became Cubs on minor league contracts last offseason, but the team designated the two for assignment in recent days. Phegley, formerly the A’s starting catcher, went 1-for-16 as a Cub before they kicked him off their roster. The fleet-of-foot Miller appeared in one of Chicago’s games, but he didn’t record a plate appearance.

Cubs Sign A.J. Ramos To Minors Contract

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The Cubs have agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander A.J. Ramos, ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers reports (Twitter link).  Ramos was most recently with the Dodgers on a minors contract, but was released a few days ago.

This is the latest step in Ramos’ comeback attempt, as he sat out the entire 2019 season after undergoing shoulder surgery midway through the 2018 campaign.  Ramos was reportedly throwing in the 93-95mph range, actually a touch faster than the 92.7mph average fastball velocity he posted from 2012-18.

Ramos had a 6.41 ERA over 19 2/3 innings with the Mets in 2018, so it has been some time since he has pitched effectively at the MLB level.  For the first six seasons of his career, however, Ramos was a very effective bullpen arm, posting a 2.88 ERA, 10.5 K/9, and 2.18 K/BB rate over 346 1/3 innings with the Marlins and Mets while recording 99 saves.  Ramos’ six-year stint in Miami was highlighted by an All-Star appearance in 2016.

There’s little risk for the Cubs in seeing what Ramos has during this second act of his career.  Chicago has risen to the top of the NL Central despite getting very little from its bullpen; Cubs relievers rank 27th of 30 teams in ERA (5.68), HR/9, and BB/9.

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