Mets Designate Max Kranick, Claim Yohan Ramirez

The Mets announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Yohan Ramirez off waivers from the Orioles, who recently designated him for assignment. In a corresponding move, the Mets designated right-hander Max Kranick for assignment. The move to claim Ramirez comes less than a month after the Mets themselves designated Ramirez for assignment and traded him to Baltimore in exchange for cash. Ramirez is out of minor league options, so he’ll head right to the big league bullpen.

The revolving-door act with Ramirez isn’t entirely new for the 2024 Mets. He’s the second reliever to be designated for assignment and traded for cash, only to eventually return via waiver claim, joining Michael Tonkin in that regard. The Mets followed a similar course with Tonkin, trading him to Minnesota and quickly reclaiming him. That pattern could continue throughout the season. The Mets have very few bullpen pieces with minor league options remaining and will need to regularly cycle through different names in the last couple spots due to that lack of flexibility.

Ramirez, who turns 29 today, has pitched in eight games between the Mets and O’s this season. He’s logged 11 1/3 innings in that time and been rocked for 11 runs, though that’s obviously a tiny sample. The hard-throwing righty entered the season with a career 3.99 ERA in 124 big league frames between the Mariners, Guardians, Pirates and White Sox.

Ramirez has fanned a roughly average 23.1% of his career opponents in the big leagues, but his 12.4% walk rate is bloated well beyond league-average levels.  He’ll give the Mets a fresh arm after using five relievers yesterday (the second straight day for Reed Garrett and Sean Reid-Foley). However, given the Mets’ handling of the final couple bullpen spots so far, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone if it’s a brief stay on the roster for Ramirez.

The Mets claimed Kranick, 26, off waivers from the Pirates back in January. He opened the season on the injured list due to a hamstring strain and was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse in late April upon being reinstated. Through his first seven innings in Triple-A this year, Kranick has allowed only two earned runs but has done so while issuing more walks (four) than strikeouts recorded (two). He’s also served up eight hits, including a pair of homers.

Coincidentally, both Kranick and Ramirez were with the Pirates last season — and at one point Ramirez was designated for assignment in order to make way for Kranick’s return to the roster after he’d recovered from 2022 Tommy John surgery. This time around, it’s Kranick giving way for Ramirez’s return to the pair’s current organization.

In 43 2/3 big league innings, Kranick has a 5.56 ERA. He’s fanned a below-average 17.9% of his opponents while issuing walks at a 10.9% clip that’s more than two percentage points north of the league average. A former 11th-round pick, Kranick has a solid track record in Triple-A, where he’s pitched in parts of four seasons and notched a 3.63 ERA through 24 appearances (23 of them starts). He’s fanned just 17.8% of opponents there as well but done so with much better command, evidenced by a 7.9% walk rate.

Kranick is in the last of his three minor league option seasons. He hasn’t had much big league success, but his optionability and Triple-A track record could earn him a look from a club in need of some rotation depth. In the next five days, Kranick will either be traded or placed on outright waivers or release waivers (both of which are a 48-hour process). He’s never been outrighted in the past, so if he clears waivers, the Mets will be able to assign him outright to Syracuse and retain his rights without needing to commit a 40-man roster spot to Kranick.