The Padres have considered releasing veteran shortstop Alexei Ramirez in order to open playing time for some younger options, reports Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union Tribune.
The longtime White Sox shortstop landed in San Diego on what looked to be a bargain one-year, $4MM contract with a mutual option for the 2017 season, but even that modest commitment hasn’t been justified by Ramirez’z on-field performance. The 34-year-old is in the midst of perhaps his worst season at the big league level, having compiled a .238/.272/.326 batting line with just four homers and six steals (in 13 attempts). His ratings in defensive metrics such as Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved had begun to decline in recent seasons even before he signed in San Diego, but both have cratered in 2016; UZR pegs him at 15.7 runs below average, while DRS is even more harsh at -17.
Ramirez’s mutual option was never all that likely to be exercised anyhow — mutual options are rarely picked up by both involved parties — but his poor play in 2016 has made it a certainty that the Padres will buy out the option. Releasing Ramirez would create an opportunity for Padres officials to get a look at players like Jose Rondon, newly acquired Luis Sardinas and former Giants prospect Nick Noonan, who enjoyed a strong season playing shortstop at Triple-A El Paso and made three consecutive starts at short for the Padres from Aug. 11-13.
Maybe I just don’t fully understand, but shouldn’t the Padres at least first put him on waivers to see if there is a remote chance a team claims him? Or is it more likely that he wouldn’t be claimed because a team doesn’t want to take on his salary? I guess releasing him would only require the team who signs him to only have to pay a pro-rated rate of the minimum salary, with the Padres paying the remainder of the $4 million?
They might have already done that.
If they had already done that we would have known.
Not necessarily. We find out about some players that clear waivers, but not all of them.
Ramirez stinks. No one is claiming him and picking up his contract. Zero chance.
Man, it’s been forever since the Padres have had a decent shortstop. As a fan,, I really wish they had drafted a guy like Trea Turner. That would have been awesome….wait…what?
Whoa whoa, keep quiet. You don’t want to disturb the Preller fans.
I don’t recall a decent shortstop since Khalil Greene
They keep turner theyd be using brett wallace as the 1st baseman…..so you literally just go from having a issue at ss solved to a 1B issue now….. they havent had a decent 1B since Gonzalez.
Its either
no ss and myers at 1st or
no 1B and turner at ss.
Lol you forget they had Anthony Rizzo? But they wanted Andrew Cashner instead
And then for Cashner they got a 1st base prospect who should be ready by the time the Padres are contending so even with the Rizzo for Cashner trade this all would have worked itself out if the Myers trade hadn’t happened.
Naylor hasn’t looked very good yet and he, you know, stabbed a teammate this year. But maybe he turns into something.
And the padres will find a ss by the time they compete so trading turner is a moot point as well.
They have 6 short stops in their top 30. Rondon Guerra Urias Arias Almanzar.
On top of if they need a ss preller has built depth to trade from.
So again moot point by that logic of someone will be ready come 2019.
What dies rizzo being traded 4 years earlier by a different regime- actually 2 or 3 regimes ago- have to do with preller trading turner for myers? Oh- nothing.
Oh my god. Sorry bro its not a moot point at all. You have six prospects some of whom are not even in A ball yet. Very high bust rate. You have not one SS as highly rated and as advanced as Trea Turner was at the time he was traded. And the ones you mentioned are like 4-6 years away. So no its not a moot point. The only point is Preller made a huge mistake and that one particular trade was so friggin stupid it set back your organization 4-6 years. And for Cashner you think you found the next Rizzo? The clown you picked up for Cashner may not even make the big leagues. Dream on.
Guess you didnt read the part where i said
IF THEY NEED A SS PRELLER HAS DEPTH TO TRADE FROM.
There i put it in caps for you.
He has built such depth in the outfield in margot renfoe ona reed gettys jankowski dickerson. You cant keep everyone. 3 outfielders plus a 4th.
He could easily part with the surplus to acquire a controllable ss.
Thats assuming rondon guerra almanzar urias arias don’t take grasp on the job before. 4-6 years away- gee theyre expected to compete around 2019 2020 which what you know is 4 years away.
Thus- it becomes a moot point.
Yeah 1B is really easy to get productiom from. Ask the Rangers Mets Pirates Astros Athletics about that easy 1B production LOL.
Thanks for stopping by but you realy contributed nothing to this thread.
Rondon would never be the starting SS on a contending team, Guerra TANKED this year and might never hit enough to play in the Majors, Urias is pretty much limited to 2nd base, Almanzar and Arias are 16, you never know what will happen with 16 year olds.
And also, it’s way easier to find or develop a first baseman than it is to find or develop a shortstop.
SS is a MUCH more important position then 1b so the Padres not having Turner is a huge loss. Go try to find a stud SS. Not easy. First baseman can be had. Then again they had Rizzo …
Yes I bet they wish they had Trea Turner still
Soon enough they’ll find their SS. They signed the 2nd-4th best international SS options in July and one of them behind Urias, Giron, Guerra, Rodon, Sardinas will emerge (my guess Almanzar or Arias may both turn into more than everyday players).
Real talk, I’d take Urias + Almanzar over most teams top SS prospect options. Both would be rated top 100 right now if either were signed by Yankees or Red Sox imo.. Almanzar was #4 international and probably the best Dominican signed this year? Expect to hear about them when they come over next year. Turner (+Ross) would be good right now; still think I’d take Myers.
So he’s bad at the plate, bad at fielding, and gets thrown out more than 50% of the time when stealing. I’ll do that for half of his 4 million coach
I’d do it for MLB minimum. lol
Lmao
Time to play the Baby Pads. Put him on waivers and if no one claims him, let him walk. He is not contributing now and its valuable learning time for our young players.
All these guys + Alexei Amarista are terrible. Is there any way they can experiment Ryan Schimpf or Spangenberg to SS?
Even if Spangenberg gets healthy, he is not capable of playing SS. And he’s a lot better defensively than Schimpf.
At least Amarista enjoys the game itself and gives the game his undivided attention. You know when he’s on the field? He’s giving 100% every second of the game. Couldn’t say the same with regards to Ramirez some of the games I saw from what it looked like in the field.
Totally agree, of any (subpar performing) player Ninja deserves it the most
Amarista is what, 1700 PA into his career, with a 278 OBP and a 71 OPS+. Great guy maybe. Bad ballplayer
Isn’t the better question “why would you keep him?”
Because the Padres have literally no better options at shortstop
playing for the Padres is about the same as playing for a AAA team.
more like high A ball
I remember prior to the season when the Padres were debating whether to pay more and get Ian Desmond, or go cheap and get Alexei.
Oops.
Not really an oops.
Paying $10 mil for Desmond wouldn’t have helped us at all really.
It’s not like Ramirez vs. Desmond was the difference in making the playoffs.
Desmond definitely could’ve helped the Padres if he hit like this (or similar) at Petco. Even if they signed him and were still awful (likely scenario), they could’ve flipped him to a contender for a couple nice pieces. Since playoffs basically aren’t an option for the Padres right now, I’d easily take that for $10mil over what Ramirez has given them.
The Padres will trade for and acquire Freddy Galvis from the Phillies in the off season,
He’s Young and Cheap ,and Might Improve in a less pressurized situation.
I’m so tired of Padres fans complaining about the loss of Trea Turner and Joe Ross. They are good players for sure, but that deal got you Wil Myers. I’d rather have Myers than Turner/Ross.
Now if you want to complain about trading Rizzo to the Cubs for Cashner I’m all ears.
Rizzo to the Cubs is bad in hindsight, but not at the time. They had two young first base prospects. Both were very highly touted. They chose to go with Yonder Alonso instead of Rizzo. Of course hindsight says it was a bad choice, but no one knew at the time which 1B would work out. They couldn’t keep both and getting a potential ace for any 1B-only prospect seems like a pretty good deal. The Padres didn’t really do bad with the trade nearly as much a the Cubs got really lucky.
Rizzo was gone way before Yonder was an option you goof! He was with the Reds
No he wasnt. In the same off season they traded latos they traded rizzo.
12/17/11 they traded Latos got the alonso package
01/06/12 they traded rizzo.
They had both for about a month.
Did you just call me a goof? I would respond, but you seem to have embarrassed yourself more than barb I can throw back at you ever would.
Ha!
Wrong
Rizzo was traded because he had a hole in his swing and they figured Petco would keep his production down.
But Alonso was most definitely already a Padre!
It’s pretty hard to have a quarterback controversy with only one option. As everyone else has already pointed out to you djtommy, you are as wrong as Josh Byrnes was.
My bad! Thought Alonzo was acquired after Rizzo was gone. Im sorry for the name calling
We have all had a bad moment or two on this forum. Apology accepted and thank you for being man enough to say it.
Or the Cubs just did a better job scouting both players than the Pads did. I can’t think of too many elite big leaguers coming out of the Pads system recently.
Rizzo put up a line of .141/.281/.242 in about a third of a season with the Padres in 2011. There is a pretty good chance that he never develops into a star if he stays with SD. His game is perfect for Wrigley, but he would have probably been as big a flop as Alonso (if not bigger) if he stayed in Petco. I’m sticking with the Cubs, and especially Rizzo, got lucky.
Wrong again Ray Ray, at least you’re consistent. Rizzo was rushed to the big leagues because no one else we tried at 1st base worked and then struggled in his first big league call up at the age of 22. He was hardly the first or the last future All Star to struggle in his first call-up. He finally started to hit with the Cubs after he incorporated changes suggested to him by the PADRES hitting coaches. Sure, Wrigley definitely helps his game but he would have been an All Star anywhere he played. We should have just been more patient.
First off, I am not wrong. It is an opinion, so it cannot be wrong. It can be disagreed with, but I forget that you always seem to confuse facts and opinions. Speaking of consistency.
His career H/R splits are not incredibly bad, but his home ops is almost 50 points higher than his road OPS. Yes, some All Stars do struggle in their first year, but so do a lot of back up players and so do a lot of washouts. No one knew at the time which one Rizzo was. Well you will probably claim that you knew, but we all know how you work.
I did think Rizzo would eventually become a perennial All Star in 2011 and so did many others.
And don’t even try it with “The Padres trading Rizzo was a good thing because getting to play in Wrigley was best for him.” By that logic, the Rockies should trade us Jon Gray and Jeff Hoffman. Getting out of Coors would be the best thing that ever happened to them.
There is a big difference between think and knew. One implies hope, the other implies knowledge.
It would be the best thing for Gray and Hoffman, but not for the Rockies. Just like it was the best thing for Rizzo, but not the Padres.
I still wouldn’t have traded Rizzo.
And it not being the best thing for the Padres is the only reason we need to not make that trade.
Not even in hindsight. You try to judge trades on the process rather than the results and the process behind the Rizzo trade was horrible. We rushed him to the big leagues, completely gave up on him when he didn’t IMMEDIATELY produce and then dumped him for a guy with considerably less value.
Baseball America prospect rankings pre-2011
#73 Yonder Alonso
#75 Anthony Rizzo
Rizzo traded.
Baseball America prospect rankings pre-2012
#33 Yonder Alonso
#47 Anthony Rizzo
They couldn’t keep both because both were 1B-only guys and both were ready for the big leagues. Other teams knew this and made lowball offers. Cashner was a pretty good prospect for the Cubs. If you want to quibble, you could probably make the argument that they shouldn’t have traded for Alonso, but once they did Rizzo had to go. They chose the higher ranked prospect and it didn’t work out.
No Rizzo was not ready for the bigs. Not quite. And his upside completely blew Alonso’s out of the water.
Dont mind Ryan. Hes wrong a lot on this site.
Had Rizzo stayed in Petco he wouldn’t be the hitter he has been with the cubs.
He has about 1/5 of a season of plate appearences at petco to suggest him leaving was a good thing. His batting line would get guys demoted or dfa at petco in the career numbers hes put up.
2015 he was 1-11
2014 he was 2-13
2013 he was 4-14
2012 he was 1-12
2011 he was 9-52
Baseball Prospectus prospect rankings pre-2011
#69: Anthony Rizzo
Not ranked: Yonder Alonso
Rizzo traded.
Baseball Prospectus prospect rankings pre-2012
#75: Anthony Rizzo
#86: Yonder Alonso
MLB.com prospect rankings pre-2012
#37: Anthony Rizzo
#39: Yonder Alonso
Beware cherry picking data in order to fit your narrative.
I wasn’t cherry picking, I just don’t like Baseball Prospectus as much as Baseball America. There is a reason they are usually listed third when discussing prospect rankings. But point taken. Regardless, Rizzo and Alonso were closely ranked on every list save one. That still supports my point that Alonso did not have “considerably less value.”
Oh I am used to him. I actually do enjoy our occasional back and forth arguments. He keeps me on my toes and calls me on my occasional BS. Most of the time he is even civil about it.
Rizzo looked ready for the bigs when he got to the Cubs in 2012. His upside did not blow Alonso’s out of the water. Alonso was the 7th overall pick in the 2008 draft. Rizzo was a 6th round pick in the 2007 draft. I know the 2008 draft was kind of weak, but I think the 7th overall pick probably had bigger upside than a 6th rounder from the year before.
Really? Name one time.
I Guess we’ll never know what he would have done in a larger sample size but when you’re as good as Rizzo is, you can play in any park and you’ll still be an All Star. Byrnes and Co blew it by trading him.
Yep. Thanks BaseballFuries.
As of the pre-2012 prospect rankings Yonder Alonso had already proven he could hit Major League pitching while Rizzo had not yet they still were ranked right next to each other as you pointed out. So Rizzo must have been regarded as having a higher ceiling because otherwise Alonso would have been ranked much higher than him.
I’d have to go with Turner/Ross for the sole reason that the Padres aren’t expected to contend until 2019, which will likely be Myers’ last year as a Padre.
I love Myers, but I think having a starting SS (who is going to be a star) and a #2 starter is more valuable than an oft-injured first baseman, no matter how good he’s been this year.
I would much rather have Trea Turner and Joe Ross then Wil Myers
I’ll take Wil Myers over Trea and Joe anytime, Wil is a proven all-star who’s talent has always been highly regarded, the only question about him was injuries, but he finally took care of that last year, and is now showing what he’s capable of, and he’ll only get better.
I realize the Rockies are falling out of the race, but there is still time and a little hope. If Ramirez gets released I’d get him at the vet minimum. He can’t be worse than what Adames/Descalso is putting out there in place of Story.
White Sox will bring him back.
He was always considered a stopgap anyway when they signed him. He is quite bad though.
Ramirez sucks. Another poor judgment by Preller. I mean really he paid him 4 million? His judgment was he could still play? He does not know talent at all
LOL yeah 4 million sure is a lot of money to pay a guy to play for you for a year and take a flier on LOL what preller would of been better off signing desmond- losing the pick he got for upton since desmond had a QO and lose the pool money?
Real smart alternative there.
Well if not Ramirez then who do you suppose would have played SS for the Padres?