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Erasmo Ramirez

Nine Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

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Pitchers

Erasmo Ramirez Accepts Outright Assignment With Rays

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Erasmo Ramírez accepted an assignment to Triple-A Durham after being outrighted by the Rays. Tampa Bay had designated the veteran long reliever for assignment late last week.

It’s the second DFA of the year for Ramírez. Tampa Bay ran him through waivers in late May and kept him in Durham until August 26. The Rays brought Ramírez back for a few days, getting him into two games before pulling him off the roster. Ramírez tossed two scoreless innings against the Mariners in his first outing, but the Padres tagged him for two runs on four walks across 2 2/3 frames during his second appearance.

On the season, Ramírez has tossed 20 2/3 innings across 13 low-leverage relief outings. He has a 4.35 ERA with a below-average 17.6% strikeout rate and a lofty 11.8% walk percentage. He has turned in very strong numbers for Durham, pitching to a 3.02 ERA with plus strikeout (28.6%) and walk (6.5%) numbers over 47 2/3 frames.

Ramírez is clearly comfortable with the Rays, as he has signed there on multiple occasions and now accepted a pair of outright assignments. He’ll stick around for the season’s final month and will be a free agent at year’s end. The 34-year-old will likely look for another minor league contract during the upcoming offseason.

Rays Place Colin Poche On 15-Day IL, Designate Erasmo Ramirez

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The Rays announced a series of roster moves today, including the news that left-hander Colin Poche was placed on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder.  Right-hander Erasmo Ramirez was also designated for assignment, and right-handers Cole Sulser and Hunter Bigge were called up from Triple-A to fill the two spots on the active roster.  Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported on the moves shortly before the team’s official announcement, and also noted that catcher Logan Driscoll has been added to the taxi squad, perhaps in advance of a contract selection tomorrow when rosters expand to 28 players.

Poche has been a reliable bullpen arm for the last three seasons, with his excellent 2.23 ERA over 60 2/3 innings in 2023 sandwiched between 2022 and 2024 campaigns that were more solid than spectacular.  This year, Poche has a 3.67 ERA, 22.3% strikeout rate, and 9.4% walk rate over 34 1/3 innings for Tampa.

He missed a little over six weeks of the season due to back problems, and now this second IL stint could potentially put the rest of his 2024 campaign in jeopardy, given the lack of time remaining in the regular season.  However, Poche told Topkin that he hopes to pitch again before the year is out, and an MRI didn’t seem to reveal anything structurally wrong with his shoulder.

Sulser and Bigge will be tasked with covering the innings left over by Poche and Ramirez, who is headed to the DFA wire for the fourth time in the last 14 months.  The Rays previously designated Ramirez back in May and then outrighted him off the 40-man roster, only to select his contract again earlier this week.

Because Ramirez has a past outright on his resume, he has the ability to reject another outright assignment (if he clears waivers) and opt into free agency.  Since the veteran righty chose to remain in the organization in May, it would seem that he’s more likely than not to again accept the outright assignment, continuing his longstanding ties in Tampa Bay.  Ramirez first pitched for the Rays from 2015-17 before rejoining the team last season, and 377 1/3 of his 849 career MLB innings have come in a Tampa uniform.

This season, Ramirez has a 4.35 ERA in 20 2/3 frames for the Rays, working mostly in a mop-up capacity and eating multiple innings when he has been on the team’s 26-man roster.  Another team in need of experienced pitching could put in a claim to bring Ramirez aboard in a similar capacity, but chances are Ramirez will clear waivers and remain in Tampa’s farm system as bullpen depth.

Rays Select Erasmo Ramírez

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August 26: The Rays made it official today, announcing that they have selected Ramírez to the roster, with Lopez optioned as the corresponding move.

August 25: The Rays plan to select veteran right-hander Erasmo Ramírez from the Triple-A Durham Bulls, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 Houston. He will join the team on Monday, in time for the first game of a three-game set against the Mariners. The Rays already have an open spot on the 40-man, although they will need to make room for Ramírez on the active roster.

Ramírez, 34, is a 13-year MLB veteran who has pitched for six different clubs since making his debut in 2012. Funnily enough, he spent the first seven years of his professional career (and his first three years in the majors) with the Mariners – the team he will likely face in his next big league outing. Ramírez spent the 2012-14 seasons with Seattle before the Mariners traded him to the Rays in March 2015. Two and a half years later, Tampa Bay flipped him back to Seattle at the 2017 trade deadline. He would remain with the M’s through the 2018 campaign.

After that, Ramírez spent time with the Red Sox, Mets, Tigers, and Nationals before finding his way back to the Rays in 2023. He re-signed with the club on a minor league deal this past offseason, and he has already spent one brief stint in the majors in 2024, pitching 16 innings with a 4.50 ERA and 5.22 SIERA. The Rays DFA’d him in May, but he accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A, where he has a 3.02 ERA over 47 2/3 frames.

Ramírez won’t be a high-leverage arm for the Rays, but he can be a valuable innings eater out of the bullpen. He threw 146 2/3 MLB innings from 2022 to ’23, and he regularly goes multiple innings in an outing. Tampa Bay’s relief corps ranks third in the majors in innings pitched since the All-Star break, so they could surely use the extra help. They may have the second-lowest bullpen ERA (2.29) and SIERA (3.11) in that time, but a fresh arm to help shoulder the workload is never a bad thing. The Rays optioned bulk reliever Joel Kuhnel to allow for Jacob Lopez to make a spot start today, so Kuhnel cannot be recalled for at least 15 days unless he is the 27th man for a doubleheader or replacing a pitcher on the IL. Presumably, Lopez will return to Triple-A, despite his strong performance today (5 IP, 1 ER), and Ramírez will take his spot on the 26-man roster.

Rays Outright Erasmo Ramirez

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Rays right-hander Erasmo Ramírez cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on Wednesday. While the veteran had more than enough service time to test free agency, Tampa Bay announced that he accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Durham.

Ramírez seems comfortable with the organization. He played for the Rays between 2015-17 and returned on a minor league deal after being released by the Nationals last summer. Ramírez got to the majors for 15 appearances last season and inked another non-roster contract over the winter. Tampa Bay selected him to the MLB team in April.

The 34-year-old pitched 11 times over the last few weeks. He allowed 10 runs (eight earned) in 16 relief innings. While his 4.50 ERA was reasonable, he managed only a 9:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio and gave up four home runs. Ramírez allowed 6.41 earned runs per nine over 60 1/3 innings a year ago. His most recent MLB success came in 2022, when he provided the Nats 86 1/3 frames of 2.92 ERA ball.

Shortly after Ramíez’s DFA, skipper Kevin Cash lauded the veteran’s professionalism and willingness to handle multiple innings (link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). The Rays clearly value him as a depth arm and could call upon him again at some point during the season when they need a long relief option.

Rays Notes: Lowe, Walls, Ramirez

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Rays outfielder Josh Lowe has spent most of the season on the injured list after a series of injuries, including oblique, hamstring, and hip issues, prevented him from playing since Spring Training. Things began looking up for the 26-year-old when he was activated off the injured list earlier this month, but he appeared in just 14 games before being pulled from yesterday’s game against the Red Sox due to right side strain.

The strain immediately raised alarms for Lowe and the Rays given his oblique issues earlier this season, but Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported earlier this evening that while Lowe underwent an MRI exam to determine the severity of the issue, the results were ultimately inconclusive. Topkin suggests that an injured list placement for Lowe remains likely to ensure that he doesn’t aggravate the oblique issue that left him sidelined to open the season, although the club opted to wait until Friday to make a determination about a potential IL stint for the outfielder after Lowe told club officials this morning that he was feeling better today.

The club’s first-round pick in the 2016 draft, Lowe enjoyed a breakout season last year as he posted a strong .292/.335/.500 slash line in 501 plate appearances, good for a wRC+ of 131. That figure has dipped to just 108 this season, although a sample size of just 54 plate appearances is hardly meaningful enough to draw conclusions from. Whether Lowe ultimately proves to once again be the impact bat he was for the Rays in 2023 or not, another trip to the injured list would be an unfortunate turn of events for a lineup that’s already without Taylor Walls and has seen key pieces like Randy Arozarena and Yandy Diaz struggle in the early going this year. Richie Palacios was the club’s primary answer in right field while Lowe was out earlier this year and once again figures to handle the position in his absence should he require a trip to the injured list.

Speaking of Walls, Topkin reports that the infielder could be nearing a notable step forward in his rehab from offseason hip surgery as he’s “tentatively scheduled” to move from the Florida Complex League up to Triple-A Durham on May 30. That’s a fairly quick turnaround, as Walls first began his rehab assignment in Florida on Tuesday according to MLB.com’s Injury Tracker. The Rays have relied on Jose Caballero and Amed Rosario to handle shortstop in Walls’s absence but neither of them have the strong defensive reputation of Walls, whose +38 Defensive Runs Saves from 2021 to 2023 are sixth-best among all big league infielders despite Walls appearing in just 295 games during that time.

In other Rays news, Topkin also relays that club manager Kevin Cash told reporters yesterday that the club remains interested in right-hander Erasmo Ramirez even after designating the righty for assignment yesterday. Cash indicated that the club could look to pursue a reunion with Ramirez in the event that he isn’t claimed by another club while on waivers, noting that the club would “definitely” like him back in the fold.

The 34-year-old hurler first played for the Rays from 2015-2017 as a swing man before returning to the club midseason last year. Ramirez’s second stint with the Rays could’ve gone better, as he allowed a 5.84 ERA while striking out just 18.2% of batters faced in 49 1/3 innings of work across the past two seasons. Even so, he’s just a couple of years removed from a strong 2022 campaign with the Nationals where he pitched to 2.92 ERA in 86 1/3 frames across 60 appearances as a multi-inning relief arm for the club.

Rays To Designate Erasmo Ramirez For Assignment

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The Rays are expected to designated right-hander Erasmo Ramirez for assignment, per a report from Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times last night. Ramirez’s departure is set to be the corresponding move for the return of righty Ryan Pepiot from the 15-day injured list ahead of his scheduled start against the Red Sox tonight.

Ramirez, 32, is a veteran of 13 MLB seasons who first made his big league debut back in 2012 as a member of the Mariners. From 2012-18 Ramirez split his time between the starting rotation and the bullpen in both Seattle and Tampa, pitching to a slightly below average 4.36 ERA with a 4.54 FIP across 192 appearances in that seven year stretch, 92 of which were starts. Ramirez posted a 6.7% walk rate during that time while generating grounders at a solid 44.4% clip, but he struck out just 18.5% of batters faced while allowing a hefty 13.8% of his fly balls to leave the yard for home runs. Ramirez’s final season with the Mariners in 2018 was a particularly difficult one, as he was torched to the tune of a 6.50 ERA in ten starts with the club.

Those difficulties led Ramirez to bounce around the league, making brief appearances in Boston, Queens, and Detroit over the next three seasons before finally returning to a regular role with the Nationals in 2022. Ramirez took to the nation’s capital quite well as he posted a strong 2.92 ERA in 86 2/3 innings of work that came almost exclusively out of the bullpen. While the righty’s strikeout rate of 17.6% remained below average, he allowed free passes to just 4% of batters that season while seeing his groundball rate tick up to 45.2%. The showing was enough for the Nationals to sign him to a one-year big league deal worth $1MM for the 2023 campaign, assuring him of a spot in the club’s bullpen entering Spring Training.

Unfortunately, the decision to retain Ramirez didn’t work out, as his peripherals regressed slightly in all areas during the 2023 campaign. Those dips in underlying performance combined with an unusually low 62.2% strand rate left Ramirez’s results on the field to swing from well above average to well below as he allowed a 6.41 ERA with a 5.05 FIP in 60 1/3 innings of work split between the Nationals and the Rays, the latter of whom signed the righty to a minor league deal midseason after he was released by Washington.

Ramirez continued his second stint in Tampa by re-signing with the club on a minor league deal this past offseason and was selected to the roster in mid-April, but the 34-year-old has looked unimpressive in ten appearances. He’s allowed a 4.20 ERA with a whopping 6.08 in 15 innings of work while striking out just 13.6% of batters faced, walking an elevated 9.1%, and generating groundballs just 38.1% of the time. Once Ramirez is officially DFA’d, the Rays will have one week to either trade Ramirez or attempt to pass him through waivers, although the righty has more than enough service time to reject outright waivers and test free agency should he go unclaimed.

Rays Select Erasmo Ramirez

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The Rays announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Erasmo Ramirez.  In corresponding moves, left-hander Jacob Lopez was optioned to Triple-A, and infielder Taylor Walls was shifted from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list.

Today’s move kicks off what is officially Ramirez’s third stint with the Rays.  The righty first pitched for Tampa during the 2015-17 seasons, before moving on to pitch for five other teams in a journeyman’s trek around the majors until landing again in Tampa Bay last summer.  After the Nationals released Ramirez in June, he spent only a few days on the open market before inking a minor league contract with the Rays, and he ended up posting a 6.48 ERA over 33 1/3 innings and 15 appearances at the MLB level.  He elected free agency at season’s end, but Ramirez then returned to the Rays on another minors deal in December.

Ramirez has a 4.37 ERA over 828 1/3 career innings, working as a starter, reliever, swingman, and bulk pitcher (behind an opener) over his 12 Major League seasons.  There have been plenty of ups and downs over this long career, and Ramirez’s 3.76 ERA over 254 frames with Tampa in 2015-16 essentially represents his peak.  The right-hander then struggled to a 4.85 ERA over 221 innings from 2017-21 until finding some stability working out of Washington’s bullpen, and posting an impressive 2.92 ERA in 86 1/3 innings in 2022.  Advanced metrics weren’t as impressed with Ramirez’s revival, however, and the regression wave hit when he posted a 6.41 ERA in 60 1/3 combined innings last season with the Nats and Rays.

Given how the Rays frequently cycle through pitchers at the back end of their bullpen, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Ramirez designated for assignment relatively soon, despite the extra machinations to add him to the 40-man roster.  Ramirez has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, though if that situation comes, he could also choose to remain in a familiar situation in Tampa Bay rather than test the market once again.  In the meantime, Ramirez (who turns 34 on May 2) will likely at least get some innings under his belt to officially mark his 13th MLB campaign, and give the Rays a known quantity for covering innings in the relief corps.

Walls had hip surgery back in October, and since his 60-day IL stint is backdated to the start of his initial 10-day placement, the shortstop won’t be making his 2024 debut until late May at the very earliest.  Rays manager Kevin Cash told MLB.com and other media last week that Walls hadn’t had any setbacks in his recovery, but was “just not going as quick as maybe we had originally anticipated,” creating some doubt as to when exactly Walls will be back in action.  The shortstop will still need to take part in an extended Spring Training ramp-up and then a minor league rehab assignment, so even a late May return might be optimistic given the lack of updates on Walls to date.

Latest On Rays’ Roster Plans

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6:15pm: Topkin adds that each of Uwasawa, Brantly, and Smith have upward mobility clauses in their contracts rather than traditional opt outs, meaning that each can request to be made available to the other 29 clubs, at which point if a club agrees to give a given player an active roster spot the Rays will have the choice between adding the player to their 40-man roster or trading him to the interested team. Per Topkin, Brantly, Uwasawa and Smith have all told the Rays that they wish to use their assignment clauses.

10:57am: The Rays reassigned right-handers Naoyuki Uwasawa, Burch Smith, and Joe Record, catchers Francisco Mejia and Rob Brantly, and outfielder Jake Mangum to their minor league camp on Friday.  Manager Kevin Cash told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that while none of the six players would be making the Opening Day roster, the Rays were hoping the entire group would remain as minor league depth.

Uwasawa, Smith, and Brantly have some say in their futures, as each of the trio can opt out of their minor league contracts if they aren’t included on the big league roster.  Erasmo Ramirez is another veteran in camp on a minors deal, yet Topkin reports that Ramirez will report to Triple-A and pass on exercising his opt-out clause.

Uwasawa is perhaps the most interesting name in the group, as the 30-year-old is making the jump to MLB after nine seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.  The righty signed a split contract with the Rays that will pay him $2.5MM in the majors and $225K for his time in the minors, as well as a $25K signing bonus and $1MM worth of incentive clauses that would start to kick in if Uwasawa pitched at least 70 big league innings this season.

Though Uwasawa was offered guaranteed contracts by other MLB teams, he chose Tampa Bay “because the success and the rich history of pitching development really intrigued me,” as the right-hander said in a statement at the time of his signing.  It isn’t yet clear if Uwasawa will now stay with the Rays, as he told Topkin (X link) that he would be speaking with his agent to weigh options, including opting out if another team is willing to give him a clearer shot at pitching in the bigs.

Uwasawa didn’t help his case for a roster spot by posting a 13.03 ERA over four appearances and 9 2/3 innings in Spring Training, though he looked a lot sharper in his most recent Grapefruit League outing — he held the Orioles to one run on four hits and a walk over four innings on March 15.  As both Topkin and Cash noted, some adjustment time was inevitable for Uwasawa in his first exposure to the North American style of baseball.

With Brantly and Mejia now cut, it essentially finalizes Alex Jackson’s expected role as the Rays’ backup catcher behind Rene Pinto.  The catching position has long been both a revolving door and a question mark for the Rays, and Topkin feels another backstop might still be added if the Rays like another name who might become available as rival teams also shed players from their spring rosters.

Rays, Erasmo Ramirez Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rays are bringing veteran righty Erasmo Ramirez back for another stint with the organization, as the two parties have agreed to a minor league contract, per the club’s transaction log at MLB.com. Presumably, Ramirez will be in big league camp next spring and vie for a spot on the roster.

Ramirez, 33, split the 2023 season between the Nationals and Rays — his second stint with them. The right-hander debuted with the Mariners back in 2012, was traded to Tampa Bay in 2015 in exchange for lefty Mike Montgomery, and then returned to the Rays this past season after being released by Washington.

In 33 1/3 innings with Tampa Bay this past season, Ramirez was tagged for an unsightly 6.48 earned run average. However, he posted a 20.3% strikeout rate and excellent 4.7% walk rate while also inducing grounders at a solid 43.6% clip. The strikeout rate was below average, but Ramirez’s command and ability to minimize hard contact still create some optimism for a turnaround. He was plagued by an awful .379 average on balls in play with the Rays despite yielding a lower-than-average 87.3 mph average exit velocity and 37.3% hard-hit rate. That’s not to say that all of Ramirez’s struggles were due to fluky luck on balls in play — he also allowed 1.89 homers per nine frames, for instance — but that was certainly a factor to some extent.

As recently as the 2022 campaign, Ramirez notched an excellent 2.92 ERA in 86 1/3 innings with the Nats. He’s pitched 828 1/3 innings at the MLB level and carries a career 4.37 ERA with an 18.1% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate. Now entering his mid-30s, Ramirez shouldn’t be expected to improve much upon last year’s 92 mph average fastball velocity, but his sharp command, knack for weak contact and experience as a starter, multi-inning reliever and single-inning reliever make him a sensible add for a Rays staff that habitually cycles through depth options on the pitching staff. That’ll be even more important in 2024, when Tampa Bay will be trying to recover from major elbow surgeries for Shane McClanahan (Tommy John surgery), Jeffrey Springs (TJS) and Drew Rasmussen (internal brace).

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