Aramis Ramirez has exercised his side of his $14MM mutual option with the Brewers and will return to the club in 2015, the Brewers announced via their Twitter feed. Milwaukee exercised its end of the option on Friday. Ramirez is represented by Paul Kinzer.
Ramirez said in September that he was keeping his options open, though he preferred to return to Milwaukee and wasn’t sure if he wanted to play beyond the 2015 season. Exercising this option checks off both boxes for the 36-year-old slugger, though as MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes noted in Ramirez’s Free Agent Profile, it’s very rare for a team and player to both agree on a mutual option, let alone one worth as much as $14MM. Dierkes projected Ramirez to find a two-year deal worth between $26-$30MM (depending on if Ramirez had a qualifying offer attached to him or not) this winter.
“He is comfortable in Milwaukee, and obviously Aramis has made a lot of money in his career and he has invested wisely and is in very good shape (financially),” Kinzer tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “He told me he wants to control his own destiny. He’ll decide after next year if he wants to keep playing.
“If he signed a two- or three-year deal (with another club) now, he’d feel obligated to fulfill that contract. This is his choice. He’s happy in Milwaukee and if he puts up the numbers and wants to play another year, it’s his decision and nobody else’s. He said he’ll sit down with his family at the end of next year and decide if he wants to play more. It was an easy decision for him.”
Ramirez hit .285/.330/.427 with 15 homers and a 109 wRC+ over 531 plate appearances in 2014. While still a productive bat, there were a few red flags around Ramirez’s performance — he hasn’t posted a lower slugging percentage since the 2002 season, a lower walk rate since 2000, and his .142 ISO was a career-low over a full season. If Ramirez’s decline gets sharper, the Brewers may have dodged a bullet by only having the veteran under contract through next season. Milwaukee’s corner infield situation for 2015 has become much clearer with Ramirez returning at third and the newly-acquired Adam Lind getting much of the time at first base, though Lind will need a platoon partner to face left-handed pitching.
Dierkes ranked Ramirez as the 19th-best free agent of the 2014-15 offseason, and the fairly sparse third base market gets even thinner with Ramirez off the board. This further strengthens Pablo Sandoval and Chase Headley’s chances of finding big contracts as the best available 3B options, though Hanley Ramirez could also still explore signing as a third baseman.
Photo courtesy of Benny Sleu/USA Today Sports Images
Wow. Kind of surprised he didn’t go after a 3 year deal. Good news for the Brewers here.
He did say that after making over 100 million in his career he just wanted comfort, he lives in the Chicago area and wasn’t looking to move.
Good for him. I actually thought he would end up staying with Milwaukee, just thought he’d get an extra year or two on top. Works well for both sides, though.
Doesn’t work for Milwaukee if he hits like he did down the stretch. That’s a lot of money to pay somebody that could have trouble posting a .700 OPS next year. His post All Star OPS in 2014 was just .715.
The problem is that there isn’t much else available at 3B in free agency (and even less in the Brewer’s farm). At least if A-Ram doesn’t produce, it’s only for a year.
Aramis signed a very reasonable deal with the Cubs as well. He could have easily gotten more. He seems like a good guy.
He is a huge family guy. Always brings his kids to the ballpark and always has his family first. Nothing would ever come between him and his family.
Konerko was a great guy with the White Sox but after 2012, he was virtually done as a player. You don’t pay a guy $14 million because he’s a nice guy. You pay him to produce. From late June on, he didn’t produce.
Non-sequitur here. Not sure how this is relevant to my comment.
You assume he’d have teams offering him 3 years. He turns 37 in June and runs like he’s 60 to protect his hamstrings. Over the last 81 games he had a grand total of 4 HR and 26 RBI. What team after seeing what happened with Beltran and the Yankees is going to offer a lesser physical specimen like Ramirez a 3 year deal?
Dave you are looking at it the wrong way all too much. Last 81 games this. Ignore his career numbers offensively and say his last 81 games are what he is. There’s more chance you’re right. But now if Ramirez went through his first half of 11HRs/40Rbi and continues on that pace for a 20HR/80RBI+ season all everyone will say is how did we not get this guy? How many 3b offer that kind of Offense? 20/80+? Offer a .280 type BA and .335 or higher OB? Until he performs for a Full season at the rates of your 81game concern he’s going to be wanted due to his “Upside” ignoring his downside. The proposition of a 3yr deal is likely based on getting a cheaper annual per year value that way. A 3/30-10per avg vs a 2/25 12.5 avg. When he fails due to age would you rather look at him costing the team 12-14mil per year? Or 10mil per?
To me this is a good player(re Bat) for Milw to have at 3b next season. The price is higher than I’d want to pay but for 1more year vs. signing Sandoval/Headley/HanRam and whatever other 3b FA is out there to 3years or more deals, I’ll look past the cost.
0 for 1 so far in the contest (Edit, I just realized actually Everyone can go back and edit it until November 7th. So everyone will be 1 for 1 then pretty much).
Do I get extra credit if I had him staying with the Brewers?
I was wondering the same thing.
It’s too late to change it, but now everyone can go back and fix the pick. I wish they could freeze the pick.
Doesn’t appear that way unfortunately.
Out of curiosity, where did you say he was going to go? And how did that affect your other 3rd basemen picks. For example, I am rooting for Sandoval to go to Boston so that Headley would end up in NY. And if Sandoval stays with the Giants then I’d have to fix two picks.
Yankees. I edited it also to put Headley now as the Yankees 3B because their in talks (I had Headley with Boston) and I’ve picked Sandoval to stay with SF.
A mutual option got exercised by both sides? Is this a sign of the end times?
No
– Scott Boras
Hurray (I’m a Brewers fan). Now they can take any money they have left and spend it on the bullpen. (Since they got Lind for half the price of LaRoche, they probably have some $millions still to spend.)
Not sure how deep DM can dig into the owner’s wallet since they are already pushing $105M with this signing. I would like to see them resign Duke but he might be looking for a 3 year deal around $3-4M AAV. Not sure they can afford him without a bit of a discount.
Your numbers are off. They are hovering near $95mil not including Gerrardo Parra right now. A non linkable source looked at this not too long ago. So they have about $10mil for 2 relievers, 4th outfielder, and any other upgrades they desire.
I was including Parra’s $6.5M in my total. If you just take Gallardo (13), Garza (12.5), Lohse (11), Broxton (9), Ramirez (14), Braun (13M), Gomez (8M), Lind (7.5), Lucroy (3.5) you are already at $91.5M. Even if you go with another 12 players at league minimum ($6M), Maldonado (1) and Parra ($6.5M) you are at $105M with 2 roster spots still open. I can’t see Mark A. spending big on a couple of bullpen arms. Its more likely
Melvin will sign a couple of bullpen arms off the scrap heap in February to minor league deals.
I ran the numbers and came out to $97mil currently and potential to be slightly less. MarK will let Doug spend. He always does and will always be willing to stretch the payroll. I can see them going up to $110mil. But realistically they have atleast 7mil.
Your numbers are also slightly off on some adding up to 2mil extra. Not a lot but it is quite a difference. I also continue to leave Parra out. If they are willing to pay him $7mil they probably would expand payroll to fit him in.
One option is to offer Parra an extension, say 2 years for $11M with a team option ($1M buyout). This would bring his salary down to $5M in 2015 and give DM another couple million to spend on the bullpen or platoon mate for Gennett (maybe Ramon Santiago?).
I think they will trade Parra. They have bigger needs than a $5mil+ back up who has declining defense(I mention his defense as that is really his value and at this point it may not be as good as some label it). I see them resigning Reynolds and hopefully getting a better utility player(Santiago is a good option). Not sure what they would do in the OF. Admittedly I don’t follow the 4th outfielder market.
The bullpen is trickier. Doug Melvin always seems to find good arms for cheap. I could see K-Rod returning if no one wants to give him closer money, but outside of that I think they let Duke walk and just go cheap here. I’m sure the progress on Thornburg and Henderson factor into this as well.
Not sure Reynolds is necessary since they have Rogers and now Jimenez who can back up first and third for the league minimum. As for the bullpen. maybe someone like Crain who is coming back from injury is available on a minor league deal.
Unless they can find a team that views Parra as an everyday player, they’ll have trouble trading him. He just doesn’t hit enough to be a regular corner OF. Great glove guy, fine 4th OF but he’s projected to earn closer to $7 million. I would expect the Brewers to non-tender him, then try to sign him for a bit less per year over 2. A $10 million/2 year deal makes sense.
So he isn’t worth 7mil but is worth 5mil to play on the bench…? Some team would pay him the 6.5mil to start. Are the Brewers going to get much in return? No, but not really a big deal.
Attanasio has to go all in this year, and that includes making the assumption that Braun will rebound. If they can keep Duke for your price and add one more comparable reliever, they’d be in good shape.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure Mark a wants to spend $110M to start the season with the idea of taking on additional payroll in July if they are still contending. I hope he does but wouldn’t count on it.
They could conceivably still go “all in” and still trade either Lohse or Gallardo and save a considerable amount. Neither of those guys is that hard to replace. Certainly if they are out of it in July, they will try to find deals for both of those guys.
I’m a Brewer fan too and I’m totally against bringing him back. Didn’t you watch Ramirez fail time and again as the team went down the drain? The man had a great career but he’s done. He jogs around the bases, can’t hit for power anymore and had just 26 RBI the last 81 games. I can think of a lot better ways to spend the additional $10 million they did to pick up the option.
This is surprising only because I can’t remember the last time both sides of a mutual option were exercised. Rami appeared to really like both the team and the city, so it was only a matter of making the dollars work, which apparently he wasn’t worried about in the first place.
I found 4 mutual options excerised since 2008 and none of them were for more than 3mil. This is in its own stratosphere. Quite historical if you ask me.
Classy and unexpected move by Ramirez!
Unless you realize it was the best deal that was going to be out there. Think teams weren’t scouting him as he hit .217/.258/.293 in September with just 1 HR and 5 RBI? All this speculation of multi year deals was based on where he stood at the end of August before the team and Ramirez fell apart. Any team watching him in September was reminded of a number of guys his age and how quickly they lost it, guys like Paul Konerko and Carlos Beltran.
No that speculation of a multi year deal has leaked much past August. Scouts don’t judge a player on a month like you.
Over the last 81 games Ramirez drove in 26 runs out of the cleanup spot. He wasn’t productive over a lot longer than a month. It just got worse near the end. At his age if scouts aren’t looking for signs a guy is done, then they shouldn’t be scouting. Ramirez was sending out plenty of “I’m done” signals.
If he’s not producing runs, he brings little else to the table. He’s still okay defensively, but he jogs on the basepaths.
The guy hit .380 in August. I am just guessing RBIs are not a good way to judge him. The whole offense was horrible and you want to judge him on RBIs
Judging guys on runs driven in is hardly the way to get a fair reflection, RBI’s are as much a result of opportunity than they are a way to judge a hitter.
Its not 1993 anymore, judging hitters on Ribbies is a long gone sport.
Headley is not an elite third baseman. Sandoval is head and shoulders better than Headley ever will be. They should not be listed in the same sentence.
Everything is going in the Brewers’ way so far. Acquired Adam Lind for a pitcher who’s barely surviving the bigs and now have Aramis back for a year.
Not every Brewer fan thinks so Christian. Ramirez had a great first 81 games in 2014 with 11 HR and 40 RBI. That coincided with the Brewers getting to 19 games over .500 at one point in late June. Over the next 81 games Ramirez had just 4 HR and 26 RBI, and Ramirez played a big part in the team’s collapse the last 5 weeks. He’s an age where a lot of guys in this post PED era have fallen apart.
You have a point but if the team were to move on from Ramirez, you would have a limited market for a replacement at 3rd. Realistically they won’t outbid other teams for Sandoval, Headley, and H. Ramirez. It’s good to have Aramis for one more year before Jason Rogers is big league ready.
We agree to disagree. Rogers is no sure thing whether he plays there in 2015 and 2016. He’s spent plenty of time in the minors and is already 26. I’d rather see now if he’s got it. They picked up Jiminez from Angels as insurance too. Paying Ramirez $14 million in the twilight of his great career when he could really embarrass himself seems foolhardy. At best Ramirez might be able to hit .275 but with far diminished power from his heyday and no ability to go from first to third on a single or score from first on a double. Heck he has trouble scoring from 2nd on any single.
Ramirez has been a great player for a long time and has done a lot of damage as a hitter, and I realize people visualize him as a feared hitter. But as someone who sees 90% of the games the Brewers played last year, I can tell you that over the last half of the year, he wasn’t that same guy. He did have some stretches where he still hit well, but the power wasn’t there even during those times. I have a hard time believing he’ll get it back. Maybe an offseason will re-generate him a bit, but over the course of a long season, I just don’t see it. As a Brewer fan I just hope Roenicke doesn’t stick him back in the cleanup spot. I’d hit him 7th on days where he plays, but I’d rest him at least twice a week to try and preserve what he’s got left.
That’s why Aramis was signed for only one more year.
If he’s done though, it was still a waste of money and this is the Brewers, not the Yankees. They have needs in the bullpen. They can ill afford wasting money. I think if you read between the lines, Ramirez himself has doubts and that’s part of the reason he took the one year. I think the Brewers think he might be finished too, but by picking up their part of the option, they were sending messages to future FA that they do their guys right.
I agree. So expect them to trade someone, like Parra. IMO he’s getting paid a little too much as a backup outfielder. Brewers can get a potential reliever in return due to his glove.
Agree with you there on Parra. But his salary as a backup outfielder limits the amount of teams with interest. He might be a decent fit for say the Cubs, but historically Melvin doesn’t trade with in division competitors and I think the Cubs have climbed back to that level. Other big market teams see him strictly as a back up too as .700 OPS doesn’t quite do if for corner OF even as good defensively as Parra is. They may just have to non-tender him to save the money.
They throw away money all the time. Melvin never admits a mistake. The contract plays. They resist trying guys from their farm.
“If he’s done though”
And if he bats like 2011-2013? .825+OPS seasons?
Vs. Rogers/whoever else they’d get at 3b OPSing at best the same .715OPS you’re scared of?
There are a number of contracts coming to an end on the team after 2015. If you’re going to remain competitive for 2015 Ramirez provides the higher ability to do so. It’s 1 year aligned up perfectly with the other contracts. It’d be bad if Milw signed him for 2years or even worse 3years after his 81game decline you’re focused on.
As it stands now the Team has Broxton and one of Fiers/Nelson will have to move to the Bullpen. There are a number of Bullpen pitchers in the teams minors. Smith will be back, Thornburg/Henderson just getting one of them back solves alot.
Rogers is in the minors because the GM loves old players and doesn’t view using younger players as a good strategy to compete. Melvin really is a poor fit for Milwaukee. Saying someone might not make it doesn’t really mean anything. Everyone knows it.
Right cause that makes sense. It isn’t like he put Jimmy Nelson into the rotation in the middle of a playoff race or gave Khris Davis the starting job because of two good months trading away a reliable leadoff hitter.
Maybe if we actually had more upside minor league players he would do it more often. Not some guy who hits good at AAA and doesn’t profile as more than as back up. Maybe he can be an everyday player, but most likely horrible defense and no bat at 3B in a win now situation.
The fact you guys get excited over Rogers a and Clark prove just how bad our system looks.
Nelson dominated for a long time. Khris Davis wasn’t brought up because of 2 good months.
Some guy hit well throughout his minor league career. He doesn’t profile as a back up, but if they thought that he’s doomed because the Roenicke system of burying a guy on the bench for a couple weeks than giving him a couple PH attempts and maybe a spot start leads to pretty much the same numbers all ballplayers put up in that situation which aren’t good. Then internet message boards are filled with guys pounding out the all caps proclamations that the player has proven that he can’t hit in the major leagues. Well and Roenicke and Melvin will ship him to AAA “to get his bat going” and he may never be seen again.
Rogers and Clark profile as regulars. I kind of like the farm system. Filling every position with mediocre to washed up FA veterans may lead to more ticket sales, but that’s about it.
Its not like its a mystery that Melvin doesn’t like to use younger players.
You might be able to make an argument to say Jason Rogers projects as a possible starter, but Matt Clark…? Are you serious? Every minor leaguer has a chance, but let’s not say they all project as starters.
This year, much like last year, is not the time to start testing out career minor leaguers.
I very much support a rebuild after this year and that is the time I’d test out guys like that.
He was saying Khris Davis was given the starting job in 2014 because of two good months after being promoted in 2013. Doug Melvin trusted his young player enough to trade Aoki before the season even began.And Clark and Rogers profile as fringe starters at best but more realistically they will make decent bench players.