Veteran swingman Erasmo Ramirez wants to pitch in 2026, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. The right-hander tossed 11 innings for the Twins last season. Nightengale relays that Ramirez is training as a starter.
Minnesota marked the seventh stop in Ramirez’s 14-year career. The 34-year-old was called up from Triple-A St. Paul in August after the Twins’ bullpen was gutted at the trade deadline. Ramirez notched a two-out save in his first game with the club. He posted a 2.45 ERA across nine outings and closed his Minnesota tenure with five straight scoreless appearances. Ramirez was designated for assignment in late August. He elected free agency shortly after the season ended.
Ramirez has plenty of starting experience, with 96 MLB starts under his belt. It’s been a while since he’s worked extensively in that capacity, though. Ramirez made a career-high 27 starts with Tampa Bay in 2015. After pitching almost exclusively as a reliever in 2016, he made 19 starts in 2017 between the Rays and Mariners. A shoulder strain cost Ramirez the majority of the first half of 2018, but he returned to make 10 starts with Seattle.
Boston grabbed Ramirez on a minor league deal ahead of the 2019 season. He’s been mostly a reliever since then. Ramirez has made 144 big-league appearances over the past seven seasons, and only four of them have been starts.
Ramirez has a 4.34 ERA over 860 MLB innings. He entered the league with a fastball sitting in the low-90s, and he’s unsurprisingly lost a few ticks over the years. Ramirez has gone mostly cutter/sinker this decade, but he hasn’t been afraid to expand his arsenal. He threw seven different pitches as recently as 2023. He’s since ditched the slider and sweeper, relying on his curveball as his lone breaking ball the past two seasons.
As an aging soft-tosser relying on veteran guile, Ramirez is likely best suited for a swingman role, covering multiple innings as needed. His last two MLB starts came during his second stint with the Rays in 2023. While neither outing reached four innings, both of them were on short rest and resulted in Tampa Bay wins. That kind of flexibility could have value for a team in need of reliable innings.
Photo courtesy of Matt Krohn, Imagn Images
Erasmo Ramírez
Not
Erasmo Ramirez
baseball-reference.com/players/r/ramirer02.shtml
Wrong link
He’s not even 50 yet. Arm should be fresh after an 18 year break.
Maybe the Ramirez people in some crazy scheme to turn a profit made more than one.
orioles on a non roster invitee
I bet Jamie Moyer still has a few bullets left in the ol’ arm…
Rsox – Tony Fossas could probably still get out one batter a week!
Has there ever been anyone who has had more than twice as many games as appearances in a full season? In 1992 he pitched just 29 innings in 60 games. Talk about money for nothing!!!
Javier Lopez in his final season in 2016 with the Giants appeared in 68 games and pitched 26.2 innings
He pitched for the Savannah Bananas in one of their games this year.
Have I told you my favorite Matt Dillon story?
Message to Tim:
Eight comments in and 1 is about the content.
Whoever does the linking doesn’t take the time to confirm the link is accurate. Happens regularly. Not all that often but more often than it should really.
What’s surprising to me is that it doesn’t appear that MLBTR has anyone assigned to check these links, or, failing that, comments for the details of any editorial correction needed. Someone on staff must read every article, no?
If it is the author’s responsibility, they must be checking pre-post, not after the article goes live. Bad links seem to be referenced within the first couple of comments so it stands to reason, if they are checked soon after posting, most will be caught immediately, directly impacting the quality of the site’s offerings. If it was my name attached to a public offering, I would take the few minutes necessary to proof the links after posting.
If it is a system administrator, they need to understand that context matters and the thirty seconds or less it takes to confirm an identity/link is part of the posting process, especially if there is some time between submission and posting.
If it was my money, the author would be responsible for confirming that all links were functioning correctly on the site and/or the app.
Ultimately, if it’s okay with the boss ….
kodian – With all due respect I think you’re being way too hard here.
The staff puts out a TON of fantastic content, and 99.99999% of it is accurate.
Nobody is perfect anywhere at any job. And it’s not as big a staff as you think. These guys not only write the articles, they do the research and the constant searching for news and they host chats and they even moderate the comments. I think they should be praised for their quality and work ethic., and BTW Charlie I believe is a newbie so give him some time to settle in.
It’s the weekend, too, FPG, so there is that.
No argument from me on the effort here. Overall, I think they do a great job. And I know how to find the correct link when necessary so it doesn’t bother me, usually.
But I also look for the occasional insight among the comments and, when that value isn’t there, I get a bit pissy.
As a paying subscriber, I feel entitled (obviously!!) to offer a hopefully constructive criticism to improve the experience …even if it could have been presented in a more civilized manner
kodion – I can totally understand your feelings on the comments. You probably already know, quite often the comments under articles with unique player names usually are filled with attempts at humor.
Sometimes I feel the same way, I want to see insight and substance in the comments and I want the conversation to match the topic of the article.
But think about it …. you aren’t paying for the comments, you’re paying for the bonus content provided by Tim, Steve, and the other top writers. Fair to say you’re getting your moneys-worth there, right?
He’s likely going to be non-roster depth. I would highly reccomend the Astros (my team), the Dodgers, Orioles, to stock up on minor league depth. The Astros may let him start lol if they are as bad lucked as they are in 2025.
He has 14 years of service time…
Very professional website. Is AI writing all the articles too?
Nope, just the comments.
Supposed already has offers according to his wife Instagram stories
Sounds like politicians on social media if you ask me. They think if you say something often enough, especially lies, people will believe it.
Thanks for the fix in the active Erasmo!
Hey if he wants to pitch in Korea or Mexico it’ll probably happen. Doubt if he gets a Minor League invite next spring. Good work from his agent trying to start a fire with water logged wood though. Bravo.
He’ll get a camp invite. He pitched well this year in a limited sample and every team needs pitching depth at all times.
Future headline from the year 2042……
Erasmo Ramirez plans to pitch next year……