The Pirates have signed right-hander Yohan Ramírez to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He will presumably receive an invitation to major league spring training.
Ramírez, 29, returns to the Pirates, one of several teams he has pitched for in his career. The righty has logged 169 innings over the past five seasons with a 4.58 earned run average, suiting up for the Mariners, Guardians, White Sox, Mets, Orioles, Dodgers and Red Sox, in addition to his time as a Pirate.
When his career started, he was on the wild side. He has reined things in more recently, but has sacrificed a few strikeouts in the process. Over the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, he struck out 29.3% of batters faced but also gave out free passes at a 15.3% clip. Since then, he has only punched out 20.3% of opponents but reduced his walk rate to 9.8%.
Ramírez spent most of 2023 with the Bucs but went to the White Sox via waivers in September of that year. He was out of options going into 2024, which led a very nomadic season. He bounced to the Mets, O’s, back to the Mets, then to the Dodgers and Red Sox via small trades or waiver claims. Boston passed him through waivers in August and Ramírez elected free agency a few weeks ago.
Around all those transactions, he tossed 45 innings in 2024 with a 6.20 ERA but average-ish strikeout and walk rates of 21.6% and 8.2%. His .346 batting average on balls in play and 59.4% strand rate were both on the unlucky side, which is why ERA estimators such as his 4.26 FIP and 3.84 SIERA paint a rosier picture than his actual ERA.
The Bucs are about to lose Aroldis Chapman, Jalen Beeks and Ryan Borucki to free agency, so they’ll quickly add a bit of non-roster bullpen depth by bringing back a familiar face. Ramírez still has less than three years of service time and can theoretically be retained for multiple seasons, but his out-of-options status will make it hard for him to hang onto a roster spot if he gets one.
Love that pic!
He’s the reason the Dodgers did not get to 100 wins. Also the fact the Padres got within distance of the division.
Yeah I’m sure no other factors were involved there.
But he could still get a World Series ring!
It’s the annual Dumpster Diving festival brought to the Pirates fans by the cheapest owner and GM in baseball
Yes, this is a depth move but throughout the winter, signings like this will continue until the 40 man roster is complete
I expect the likes of Josh Van Meter to also return on a minor league contract
100% of MLB teams do these types of signings.
you don’t know how this franchise operates so spare me what every other franchise does
@TheMan3 everyone who follows baseball knows how the Pirates operate. You don’t have to belittle someone because they are a fan of another team. @vtadave made a reasonable response to your post. To follow up on it, it’s impossible for any team to make a significant signing before the world series even begins. So spare me your condescension.
when you become the site monitor I will stop providing my opinions
Until then I will continue with the same
As a Pirate fan who both respects and considers the thoughts of other fans, I’m pretty much done with yours.
good Monkeys Uncle,I am not here to make friends anyway
Mission accomplished
Ready for another offseason of people complaining that their team is going to have NRIs in the spring? I personally can’t wait.
It’s a minor league deal so they wouldn’t need to add him to the 40-man roster unless he breaks camp with the Pirates. It’s not like there are free agents or non-tenders to sign now.
As a pirates fan this is a broken record. The problem is he has a very good chance to break camp with the major league club
The problem is the Pirates have terrible infield defense. Yohan can get grounders and induce weak contact when he keeps the ball down. His elevated pitches get rocked because they don’t have much movement but his sinker can be a weapon.
Agree wvsteve, then the revolving door of DFAs will begin again.
i would love if if vanmeter got a contract again, that’s such an obscure name
lmk when they sign Soto
I think they should sign hurdles buddy Sean Rodriguez
He can’t the water cooler has a restraining order against him
He pitched for 4 teams this season and 7 different teams over the last 3 seasons. That’s gotta be some kind of record.
It’s going to become much more common soon. It’s the new trend of managing your bullpen. Get a guy off waivers, use him for a game or two, dfa and get another. Every so often, one guy sticks for a bit and ends up becoming useful but teams will keep doing this with the last few guys on their roster just to maintain flexibility.
Man those things sure are reined in!
Welcome back!
I feel like it should be mentioned this dude hit 12 batters in only 45 innings while throwing 8 wild pitches. That level of output puts Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo to shame.
So, not sure if the statement “he reigned things in…” applies.
A+ signing. Since the awful gm and coaching staff are all back might as well bring back a awful reliever. Maybe they can pick his brain since he was on some actually real baseball teams. They won’t though. Just keep doing the same things for the entire decade and hope for the best.
They still need to hire a hitting coach, Dream, and that should have been their priority
Do they? I don’t think it matters.
The Pirates path to competing for a wild card is entirely dependent on their starting pitching. Bednar had a terrible season last year
Edit/finishing my thought cuz I accidentally hit post comment…
Throwing crap on the wall and hoping it sticks isn’t the worst idea. There’s no guarantee Yohan makes opening day roster. Hope they can require Jose Hernandez so they have a lefty reliever with control issues they might be able to harness.
except that even with a good starting pitching staff, having an offense that ranked near the bottom of every category, it still won’t be enough to be competitive let alone a wild card berth
They probably would have been fine had the bullpen not had a full on implosion in August and they had no halfway credible fifth starter. The offense was bad, but improved slightly and they stayed afloat with it.
Counting on Marco Gonzales as your 5 was an awful move.
Rotation looked pretty good with Skenes, Jones, Keller, Perez, and Falter at one point. Gonzales was a depth piece
Starts with a good bullpen!