TODAY: Ramirez and fellow righty Nick Vincent have each been outrighted after clearing waivers. Both players have elected free agency.
The 32-year-old Vincent has appeared in over sixty contests in each of the past three seasons with Seattle. He owns a cumulative 3.62 ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9. Though Vincent still seems likely to spend plenty of time in a major-league pen in 2019, his projected $3.5MM arbitration salary was obviously deemed too steep.
YESTERDAY, 8:34pm: Morosi now tweets that Ramirez is indeed already going through the waiver process.
8:24pm: Right-hander Erasmo Ramirez is “likely” to be removed from the Mariners’ 40-man roster either via waiver claim or by clearing outright waivers and electing free agency, reports MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (on Twitter). That would suggest that Ramirez, 28, has already been placed on outright waivers, as both of those outcomes involve the team attempting to pass him through the waiver process.
Ramirez has split his career to date between the Mariners and Rays organizations, enjoying success at times with both team but struggling mightily in the most recent season. The Nicaraguan-born righty rejoined the Mariners in 2017 after being traded back to Seattle from Tampa Bay and threw quite well for his original club down the stretch. The 2018 campaign, however, was another story entirely. Ramirez was clobbered for a 6.50 ERA in 45 1/3 innings, allowing a stunning 14 home runs in that brief time while working with a diminished strikeout rate.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected Ramirez to earn $4.4MM via the arbitration process this winter, even spite of those alarming struggles, making him a clear non-tender candidate. Rather than waiting until the non-tender deadline at the end of the current month, it seems the Mariners are opting to remove Ramirez now. If he clears, which seems likely, he’ll elect free agency, and the early outright will have granted him some additional time to explore the open market in search of a new opportunity.
For all of Ramirez’s struggles he’s not far removed at all from being a useful big league arm. In 385 1/3 innings from 2015-17, the righty worked to a 3.97 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9. Ramirez was bothered by a teres major strain in 2018, spending more than three months on the disabled list with that injury, so with a return to health in 2019 he could be an affordable rotation option or long reliever for a new organization.
I’d like to mention I’m 800% okay with this
Bingo.
A player has a bad year and he still gets a raise!?
Not just bad… Awful. 6.50 ERA in 45.2 IP. I despise this most about the Arb process. They reward failure, with even the most minuscule of raises. (Like 4.2M to 4.4M in Erasmo Ramirez’s MLBTR 2019 Arb. projection)
Wish arbitration reductions were more common. But Ramirez most def would have won his case if came to that… — Make ARB salary REDUCTIONS common for failure..!! They still make millions
Agreed. It won’t happen but I agree completely.
I will never understand why fans take the side of the billionaire over the players. These guys give up earning potential playing in the minors for pennies. They should fight for ever dollar they can.
So true
Reds
Teams don’t “waive” players unless they found zero interest during the thousands of trade scenarios discussed during the playoffs; no, really, trades don’t happen overnight unless it’s the rarest of circumstances. Not these days.
So they floated his name, and nobody showed interest, probably because of the 4.4M. Given that he was hurt last year, and had been REASONABLY effective in past years, and is still on the good side of 30, he’ll wind up somewhere, for about 3M.
And yes, the Reds make all kind of sense.
He could replace Fiers on the Tigers. H
I’m sure he’ll be back. This guy never leaves my life!
He’ll be back…
He’d still make the Rangers rotation…
Nick Vincent was a bit surprising
Not really. He has been regressing for two years, was going to get $3M+ in arbitration, and has been getting hurt as well. I’m actually more surprised by Erasmo but not overly surprised on either
STOP HATING ON THE MAN HES AMAZING AS A PERSON HE HAD ONE BAD SEASON YOU ALL ARE DUSTING
Bullpens are where you should save money…..