The Nationals have released right-hander Erasmo Ramírez, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been designated for assignment earlier in the week.
Ramírez, 33, has had a very rough go of it so far this year. Through 27 innings over 23 appearances, his ERA is 6.33. His 4.8% walk rate is excellent and his 43.1% ground ball rate is close to average, but his 10.3% strikeout rate is less than half of the 23.9% league average for relievers across the majors this year.
That’s a significant drop-off from last year, when he posted a 2.92 ERA in 86 1/3 innings with a 17.6% strikeout rate. On the heels of that solid campaign, the Nats retained him by signing him to a one-year deal with a salary of $1MM for 2023. But that investment hasn’t paid off and Ramírez has lost his roster spot.
It’s not a shock to see him end up released as he would have been able to reject an outright assignment anyway. All players with more than five years of major league service time have the right to elect free agency instead of accepting such an assignment, while retaining all of their salary. The Nats have simply skipped that formality and sent Ramírez to the open market.
They will remain on the hook for that money while Ramírez will be free to sign with any other club. Should he get a roster spot somewhere else, that club would only be responsible for the prorated league minimum salary for any time spent on the active roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Nats pay.
Billy Eppler will sign him
He’s absolutely worth a look for bullpen depth. He’s been versatile and usually useful in his career.
An ERA under 7.00? Ready for the Mets bullpen!
He might as well have packed his bags the minute he balked in that 5th inning meltdown v DBacks
Yes I don’t know exactly what happened there but the poor guy looked like he had lost it, physically and mentally. Hope he’s ok in both regards.
Erasmo erased!
How do you spell emergency relief/immediate DFA. Emergamso Ramlief
The order of teams he has played for:
Seattle
Tampa
Seattle
Boston
Mets
Detroit
Washington
….but hey minimum pay per DAY in the MLB is $3900, so two weeks in the MLB spread out over a 6 month season is $55,000 or the national average annual income per household in the USA. It is why so many AAA players hang on so long. If a player is fortunate enough to play a full season (even as the 13th or worst pitcher in an MLB bullpen) the minimum pay is now $700,000 for a six month season…or approximately 12 years of national average income pay.