J.C. Ramirez

Twins Sign JC Ramirez To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | March 31, 2022 at 8:23am CDT

The Twins have signed veteran right-hander JC Ramirez to a minor league contract, as first reported by Edgard Rodriguez, who covers baseball in Ramirez’s native Nicaragua. He’ll be in camp for the remainder of Spring Training, though Rodriguez adds that Ramirez is expected to begin the year in Triple-A.

Ramirez, 33, is a veteran of six Major League seasons, most of which came with the Angels. After initially joining the Angels via a 2016 waiver claim, Ramirez quickly solidified his spot on their roster, first with a strong showing out of the bullpen in 46 1/3 innings during the 2016 season and then as a member of the rotation in 2017, when he made 24 starts and racked up 147 1/3 innings. From 2016-17 with Anaheim, Ramirez worked to a 3.86 ERA with a 16.7% strikeout rate, a 7.6% walk rate and a big 52.1% ground-ball rate.

Unfortunately for both Ramirez and the Angels, that solid 2017 season ended in August when he was diagnosed with an elbow strain. Ramirez returned early in the 2018 season in hopes that an offseason’s worth of downtime had resolved the issue, but he was hit hard in his first two starts of the season. Ramirez went back to the injured list, and Tommy John surgery was recommended in early April. He missed the remainder of the 2018 campaign and a notable chunk of the 2019 season, although he did make it back to the mound for eight relief innings in the second half of that ’19 campaign.

Ramirez was removed from the Angels’ 40-man roster late in the 2019 season and elected minor league free agency after the year, though he was set to return to the organization as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training 2020. He’d hoped to vie for a roster spot, but Spring Training 2020 was ultimately canceled during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ramirez pitched in the Mexican Winter League in both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, logging a combined 2.61 ERA in 82 2/3 innings over 13 starts. He spent the 2021 season pitching first in the Mexican League and then with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. In 57 2/3 innings CPBL innings, Ramirez posted a 3.43 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate and a 6.6% walk rate.

The Twins entered the offseason with a notable need in the rotation and have thus far added Sonny Gray, Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy on the Major League side of things. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey said after signing Archer this week that while the Twins remain open to additional trade scenarios, the limited time remaining between now and next Thursday’s season opener (plus the generally limited supply of available big league starters) might mean Archer was the final big league piece added.

If that’s indeed the case, the depth options the Twins have — both in terms of veterans like Ramirez and upper-level prospects like Josh Winder, Jordan Balazovic, Cole Sands and more — will prove all the more important this season.

JC Ramirez Signs With CPBL’s Fubon Guardians

By Steve Adams | December 28, 2020 at 10:51am CDT

Former Angels righty JC Ramirez has agreed to a deal with the Fubon Guardian’s in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, per an announcement from the team. Ramirez himself tweeted about the new agreement.

The 32-year-old Ramirez didn’t pitch in the Majors this past season after signing a minor league pact to return for what would’ve been a fifth season in the Halos organization. He was a solid member of the Angels’ rotation back in 2017, pitching to a 4.15 ERA over the life of 147 1/3 innings (27 games, including 24 starts). That showing seemed to set the stage for Ramirez to take hold of a rotation spot full-time beginning in 2018, but he suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament and underwent Tommy John surgery after just two starts in 2018.

Ramirez returned to the Majors in the second half of the 2019 season but pitched in just five games before being removed from the team’s 40-man roster. In all, he’s pitched just 14 2/3 innings since that promising showing back in 2017.

Beyond his work with the Angels, Ramirez has seen brief MLB time with the Phillies, D-backs, Mariners and Reds. In 288 1/3 innings as a big leaguer, he’s logged a 4.71 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 1.44 HR/9 and a 49.8 percent ground-ball rate.

Latest Notes On Angels Pitching Staff

By Jeff Todd | February 28, 2020 at 8:35pm CDT

Uncertainty surrounding starting pitching is nothing new for the Angels … but it surely isn’t welcome. The still-unknown outlook for Griffin Canning is weighing on the team at the moment. That’s the backdrop for several of the latest notes regarding the Los Angeles ballclub …

GM Billy Eppler says he doesn’t feel any added need to acquire a new starter — at least not yet — as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. That may in part speak to ongoing hope that Canning’s elbow woes won’t ultimately represent a major problem. But it also reflects the simple fact that, as Eppler notes, it just isn’t the best time of year to go out looking for a new arm. The open market’s best options are already taken and teams that have depth on hand are loathe to part with it at this juncture. A patient approach therefore makes sense, as the Halos’ precise level of need isn’t yet known and some amount of pitching supply is likely to free up later in Spring Training.
The Angels will build up JC Ramirez as a starter in camp, manager Joe Maddon told reporters including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic (Twitter link). As Ardaya notes, that could put the righty in the running for some sort of a flexible swingman function throughout the season. Ramirez just re-joined the Halos after reportedly showing a bit of a velocity renaissance in winter ball. If he can get back to something approaching the solid form he showed in 2016 and 2017, he’d be an awfully useful part of the Angels’ pitching staff.
There’s better news in the bullpen, where key righty Keynan Middleton seems to be showing well. As Fletcher tweets, Middleton was pumping 96-97 mph heat in his scoreless outing today. That’s a good sign given what we saw of him late last season, when he had only just returned from Tommy John surgery. While he allowed only a single earned run in 7 2/3 innings late in 2019, Middleton was clearly not in top form. He displayed a loss of over two mph on his average fastball and dished out seven walks to go with six strikeouts.

Angels To Sign JC Ramirez

By Jeff Todd | February 19, 2020 at 11:12am CDT

The Angels have a deal in place with righty JC Ramirez, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register was among those to report on Twitter. It’s a minor-league arrangement.

Ramirez has gone through some ups and downs with the Halos already. The typically hard-throwing righty finally found a stable job as a reliever back in 2016, turned in a lot of solid starts in 2017, and then went down to Tommy John surgery in April of 2018.

Though he was tendered a contract and worked back to health in 2019, Ramirez has yet to recover his heater. He sat at 91 mph after working in the mid-to-upper nineties for much of his career.

Ramirez was ultimately outrighted by the Angels after five subpar MLB outings. He also struggled during his time at Triple-A. But Ramirez has perhaps shown a bit of a spark in Mexican winter ball, where he carries a 3.48 ERA with 29 strikeouts and eight walks over 41 1/3 innings.

Angels Outright J.C. Ramirez To Triple-A

By Mark Polishuk | August 15, 2019 at 6:12pm CDT

The Angels have outrighted right-hander J.C. Ramirez off their 40-man roster and down to Triple-A, the team announced. As Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group notes, Ramirez has the option of rejecting the outright assignment in order to instead become a free agent. Left-hander Adalberto Mejia has also been activated off the team’s restricted list.

After undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2018, Ramirez made his return to the Major League mound on July 31, and the righty has a 4.50 ERA over eight innings of relief work. Of particular note was Ramirez’s 91mph average fastball velocity, a notable step down from his 95.5mph average over the course of his career, though it isn’t unusual for pitchers to gradually build up velocity after any long absence (especially in the aftermath of a major arm procedure).

The 30-year-old has already logged 41 1/3 minor league innings this season as part of his rehab work, and he’ll now head back to Triple-A unless he chooses to become a free agent. He could decide to simply remain in a familiar organization while he gets back to full health, unless Ramirez feels he’s ready for MLB action and opts to seek out a chance on another club’s 25-man roster. As evidenced by the outright, Ramirez is out of options, meaning that a new team would either have to keep him on their active roster or else expose him to waivers again in order to outright him to the minor leagues.

Angels Designate Adam McCreery For Assignment

By Steve Adams | July 30, 2019 at 5:34pm CDT

The Angels announced that they’ve designated left-hander Adam McCreery for assignment in order to open a roster spot for righty JC Ramirez, who has been activated from the 60-day injure list after missing more than a year due to Tommy John surgery.

McCreery, 26, didn’t pitch for the Angels at the MLB level after the Halos acquired him from the Dodgers in exchange for cash earlier this month. In fact, he made only two appearances with the Angels’ Triple-A club prior to today’s announcement, allowing a run on two hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. McCreery has a spotty track record in the upper minors thanks to control issues, but he’s also averaged nearly 12 strikeouts per nine innings pitched throughout his minor league career.

Ramirez, 31 next month, came out of nowhere to give the Angels 24 starts and 147 1/3 innings of 4.15 ERA ball after bouncing all over the league prior to landing in Anaheim. He’ll be utilized out of the bullpen in his return to the MLB roster, but he’s eligible for arbitration in the winter and will likely reemerge as a rotation candidate for the Angels in 2019.

Injured Angels’ Pitchers Making Progress

By Connor Byrne and Jeff Todd | July 5, 2019 at 11:28pm CDT

The Angels are close to welcoming back a pair of starting pitchers, as Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic was among those to cover (Twitter links here). Matt Harvey is slated to rejoin the rotation out of the All-Star break, while JC Ramirez appears to be nearing activation as well after a typically lengthy Tommy John rehab process. Meanwhile, reliever and fellow Tommy John patient Keynan Middleton began a rehab assignment Friday.

Harvey went to the injured list with an upper back strain May 25 and then suffered a setback June 10, continuing a nightmarish season. The Angels took a one-year, $11MM flier on Harvey in free agency, but the decision has emphatically gone against the team thus far. Once an ace with the Mets, Harvey joined the Angels after finishing 2018 in respectable fashion with the Reds. In his first two months as an Angel, though, the 30-year-old performed like one of the majors’ worst starters, notching a 7.50 ERA/6.11 FIP with 6.56 K/9 against 3.94 BB/9 across 48 frames.

Ramirez, also 30, hasn’t taken the mound for the Angels since going under the knife last April. The righty managed effective results in 142 1/3 innings as a starter for the Angels in 2017, when he put up a 4.11 ERA (with a 4.67 FIP), 6.45 K/9, 2.97 BB/9 and a 51.4 percent groundball rate. A 95.5 mph fastball helped Ramirez achieve that success, though Triple-A Salt Lake broadcaster Steve Klauke tweeted last week that the hurler’s velocity has been far less imposing during his rehab work. That was again the case Friday, per Klauke, who reports Ramirez hovered around 88 to 92 mph while tossing six innings of three-run ball.

Sadly for the Angels, the upcoming returns of Harvey and Ramirez have taken on added importance in light of starter Tyler Skaggs’ passing this week. At 45-44 and 4 1/2 games out of playoff position, the club has an outside chance at earning a wild-card spot. But the Angels will need more from a starting staff which is trying its best to carry on under terrible circumstances. None of the Angels’ current options have posted exemplary production to this point, though there’s plenty of promise in the form of Andrew Heaney and the young tandem of Griffin Canning and Jose Suarez.

Angels starters have handed off to a bullpen which has received quality late-game production from Ty Buttrey, Hansel Robles and Cam Bedrosian. When Middleton comes back, the 25-year-old will add another high-octane arm to the group. With help from a 96 mph heater, the right-handed Middleton logged a 3.43 ERA/4.24 FIP with 9.36 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 76 innings from 2017-18. He underwent surgery last May.

Pitcher Notes: Scherzer, Tigers, Archer, Angels, D-backs

By Connor Byrne | June 29, 2019 at 11:19pm CDT

Washington is visiting Detroit, where current Nationals ace Max Scherzer will start against his former team Sunday. Scherzer blossomed into a star as a member of the Tigers, with whom he won his first Cy Young Award in 2013. At the conclusion of the next season, though, Scherzer signed a seven-year, $210MM contract with the Nationals after rejecting a $144MM extension from the Tigers. Scherzer, now a three-time Cy Young winner and a potential Hall of Famer, reflected on his Detroit departure Saturday, saying (via Chris McCosky of the Detroit News): “That’s just the business side. I didn’t feel slighted. That stuff just all takes care of itself. I don’t hold any grudges or anything like. When I look back on my time in Detroit, I have great memories here and great friends.” Scherzer also noted he and fellow righty Anibal Sanchez, teammates in Detroit and again in D.C., still lament they were never able to win a World Series with the Tigers. The club clinched playoff spots from 2011-14, each of the four seasons Scherzer and Sanchez were part of its rotation. Those teams earned one World Series berth, falling to the Giants in a 2012 sweep.

AL West Notes: Gallo, Halos Hurlers, M’s, Herrmann, McHugh

By Jeff Todd | May 28, 2019 at 6:30am CDT

There’s little doubt that Rangers slugger Joey Gallo has drastically increased his career earnings outlook with a massive start to the current season. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News takes a look at the state of affairs on the extension front for baseball’s reigning three-true-outcomes king. The organization is obviously impressed, with manager Chris Woodward tabbing Gallo the club’s “best player” and GM Jon Daniels saying that he’s “mentally in a great spot.” Gallo says he’s not thinking about contracts, but agent Scott Boras surely is. As Grant notes, Boras’s assessment of Gallo’s season to date — “we are seeing the evolution of a superstar player” — offers a hint as to the kind of contract it might take to lock him up.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: Thursday

By Steve Adams and Jeff Todd | January 10, 2019 at 8:51pm CDT

The deadline for teams and players to exchange arbitration figures is tomorrow afternoon at 1pm ET. With the vast majority of teams now adopting a “file-and-trial” approach to arbitration — that is, halting negotiations on one-year contracts once figures have been exchanged and simply going to a hearing at that point — there will be a deluge of arbitration agreements in the next 24 hours. It’s a minor deadline day in terms of newsworthiness — outside of the largest cases, at least — as few arbitration cases will have a significant impact on their team’s overall payroll picture. From a broader perspective, though, the exchange of arb figures is perhaps more notable. With most or all of their arbitration cases out of the way, teams can focus more heavily on the trade and free-agent markets.

As always, it’s interesting to refer back to MLBTR’s annual arbitration projections. Here are the day’s deals:

The Tigers will pay Shane Greene $4MM for the coming campaign, Murray tweets. Entering his second year of eligibility, the 30-year-old had projected at $4.8MM, owing largely to his strong tally of 32 saves. Despite appealing K/BB numbers, though, Greene finished the season with an unsightly 5.12 ERA.
Righty Nick Tropeano settled with the Angels at $1.075MM. (That’s also via Murray, on Twitter.) That falls well shy of his $1.6MM projection. The first-year arb-eligible hurler was not terribly effective in his 14 starts last year and has just over two hundred career frames in the big leagues, due in no small part to a long rehab owing to Tommy John surgery.

Earlier Updates

Newly acquired outfielder Domingo Santana will earn $1.95MM in his first season with the Mariners, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. That’s just a touch below the $2.0MM that MLBTR & Matt Swartz had projected. The 26-year-old Santana swatted thirty long balls and had a productive overall 2017 season, but only received 235 plate appearances in the ensuing campaign — over which he hit five home runs and carried a .265/.328/.412 slash — before being dealt to Seattle.
The Angels are on the hook for $1,901,000 to rehabbing righty J.C. Ramirez, Robert Murray of The Athletic tweets. Ramirez will receive a nominal raise on his 2018 salary after requiring Tommy John surgery after just two starts.
Phillies righty Hector Neris has settled at $1.8MM, according to Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia (Twitter links). He had projected at $2.0MM but will settle for a bit less in his first season of arb eligibility. Right-handed starter Jerad Eickhoff, meanwhile, is slated to receive $975K. His projected first-year salary was much higher, at $1.7MM, but Eickhoff presented a tough case since he missed virtually all of his platform season with arm troubles.
Southpaw Ryan Buchter has agreed with the Athletics on a $1.4MM deal, Nightengale of reports on Twitter. That lands just a smidge over his $1.3MM projection. Soon to turn 32, Buchter worked to a sub-3.00 for the third-straight season in 2018, but only threw 39 1/3 innings while working as a lefty specialist.
Red Sox reliever Heath Hembree will receive a $1,312,500 salary next year, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports (Twitter link). Starter Steven Wright checks in just a shade higher, at $1.375MM, per Nightengale (via Twitter). Both players had projected in this range, with Swartz pegging $1.2MM for the former and $1.4MM for the latter. It’s Hembree’s first time through the process and Wright’s second.
First-time arb-eligible righty Scott Oberg settled with the Rockies for $1.3MM, according to Nightengale (via Twitter). It’s $100K over the projected rate for the 28-year-old hurler, who turned in far and away his most productive MLB season in 2018.
The Yankees have a $1.2MM deal in place with first baseman Greg Bird, Nightengale was first to tweet. Though he had projected a bit higher, at $1.5MM, Bird’s relatively robust number of home runs (31 total in 659 career plate appearances) were threatened to be overshadowed in a hypothetical hearing by his rough overall stats over the past two seasons. He’ll need to earn his way back into a larger share of playing time in 2019.
Infielder Travis Jankowski will earn $1.165MM with the Padres, per Murray (via Twitter). He projected at a heftier $1.4MM, but the Super Two qualifier will still earn a nice raise after his best season in the big leagues. Jankowski will be looking to crack 400 plate appearances for the first time in the season to come.
The Nationals have agreed to a $1MM contract with righty Joe Ross, Murray also tweets. Though Ross projected at $1.5MM for his first season of eligibility, that was based largely upon the innings he accumulated over the prior three seasons. Ross made it back from Tommy John surgery in time for only three outings in 2018.
A pair of backstops have also put pen to paper on new salaries. Curt Casali will earn $950K with the Reds, per Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link). John Ryan Murphy has a $900K agreement with the Diamondbacks, the elder Nightengale tweets. Casali, a Super Two, had projected for a $1.3MM salary, while Murphy projected at $1.1MM in his first arb year.

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