2:36pm: The Orioles have formally announced the Ramos waiver claim. Bautista was indeed moved to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster, which remains at capacity.
12:50pm: The Orioles have acquired infielder Bryan Ramos from the Cardinals, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. This is a waiver claim and not a trade, reports Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner. The Cards designated Ramos for assignment earlier this week when they claimed Zak Kent off waivers. Baltimore will need to open a 40-man roster spot but could easily do so by moving Félix Bautista to the 60-day injured list, since he is slated to miss most of the upcoming season.
This is the second time this month that the O’s have acquired Ramos. The White Sox designated him for assignment in late January and Baltimore sent cash considerations to Chicago to get him on February 1st. Five days later, the Orioles tried to pass Ramos through waivers but the Cards claimed him.
It may seem odd to trade for a player and put him on waivers almost immediately but the Orioles are the most aggressive club in trying to pass players through waivers to keep them as non-roster depth. There’s no 60-day injured list from five days after the World Series until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, so the O’s tried to get him through before other teams got some extra roster spots. The Cards intervened but now the Orioles have grabbed Ramos a second time.
When Ramos was first on the Baltimore roster, his path to playing time with the O’s wasn’t great. He has primarily been a third baseman in his career, with a bit of experience at second base, first base and left field as well. Baltimore’s infield was slated to include Jordan Westburg, Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday and Pete Alonso from left to right, with several corner outfielders on the roster as well. The O’s acquired Blaze Alexander in early February to serve as depth all over.
But the infield has quickly taken a few significant blows in the early days of spring training. Holliday suffered a hamate fracture and will start the season on the injured list. Westburg has a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. He is trying to avoid surgery for now but is going to miss time regardless and could still end up under the knife in the future.
With those injuries, half the infield is now up in the air. Coby Mayo may ultimately take over the third base job but his defense there has been questionable enough that he spent more time at first base last year. Alexander could move from a bench role into the regular second base job while Holliday is out.
Ramos is out of options. He could perhaps give the O’s a bit of extra infield depth on the bench while they sort out the injury situation. They could also bring in further reinforcements and squeeze Ramos to the waiver wire again in the future. For now, he has a roster spot and is in the mix for a big league bench job alongside Jeremiah Jackson and non-roster invitees like Jose Barrero and Luis Vázquez.
During his time with the White Sox, Ramos was a notable prospect. Over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, he slashed .265/.346/.453 on the farm for 116 wRC+, getting as high as Double-A. But his stock has dipped since then. He hit .228/.314/.392 in the minors over the past two years, mostly at Triple-A, with that performance translating to an 82 wRC+. He has also produced a tepid .198/.244/.333 line in his major league plate appearances.
Ramos has exhausted his option status, so his recent struggles have pushed him to a fringe roster position. If he can carve out a role in Baltimore’s injury-battered infield, he can be controlled for six full seasons before reaching free agency.
Photo courtesy of Jesse Johnson, Imagn Images
Weston Wilson is the answer.
Phew! Dodged a bullet there!
Ok, so they have a spring training body to play 3rd now go get someone that can play 3rd during the season.
Is Mayo good or is he not? If he’s not good, trade him to the Pirates. We’ll take him!
He’s inconsistent in the bigs due to inconsistent playing time. Go figure.
Exactly–I’d love for the Pirates to give him a shot, especially if they’re reluctant to do so when forced into it with this injury. I don’t understand how Orioles fans can say that Mayo should only be traded for a big return because he’s so valuable but then say he’s not good enough and they need to go out and get someone else to fill in there.
Everyone believes in the bat long-term. Very few believe he can play third base.
I get that but this is an opportune time to get him at bats. The defense may suffer but it at least gets him time to prove himself.
I don’t see why the Orioles would be holding on to him if they’ve no intent to play him at any position other than 1B of DH, particularly since he’s blocked by Alonso and Mountcastle this year and Alonso and Basallo next year if Mountcastle’s option isn’t exercised. He’s like third or fourth in line in both of those positions.
Here’s the story with Mayo. Since he’s first debuted, there’s always been an infield logjam. And he’s had to play his way into the picture. The problem was, he’d always get to play maybe 2 games in a row, then sit for 2-4 days on the bench until his next appearance. So he’s never been able to get going.
Last year an injury created an opportunity for him mid-July. He played improving 1B defense, but the bat was poor for a month and a half. Then if you check his Sept numbers something clicked. He hit .301/.393/.548 with 5 HRs. And there’s other peripherals that may indicate an upward trend too. Right when he finally turned the corner, the season ended. So there’s some upside opportunity here beneath the surface numbers.
There’s been some rumors on Pirates channels that they could buy low on him, but the Os aren’t going to trade him at a low. They haven’t given up on him, and certainly not now with Westburg’s health up in the air. That trade opportunity disappeared today.
No, I definitely understand that there’s an upside to Mayo which is why I’ve wanted the Pirates to aggressively try and trade for him. What I see are O’s fans pre-Westburg injury saying that Mayo is a high upside prospect that should be paid top dollar for and now that he’s being forced into the lineup being seen as a huge risk that should be mitigated by going out and trading for Paredes or Bohm. Those two juxtapositions don’t make sense for me.
Looking at his statistics thus far, Mayo is incredibly similar in prospect hype, potential, and professional performance to Dylan Crews. My sense is that if the Orioles hadn’t gotten Taylor Ward earlier this offseason (and still had Rodriguez), they would have balked at the Nationals asking for Rodriguez in return for Crews to shore up their outfield, at least if it were to be a one-for-one trade. They’d have been saying the same thing Pirates fans have been saying about Mayo when O’s fans have said that any return should include Ashcraft, Barco, or even more ludicrous, Chandler.
Regardless, I’ve been surprised to see O’s fans change their tune so quickly on Mayo’s potential and fit in their lineup, saying that they shouldn’t trade him for a package like Harrington or Solometo (who was a higher ranked prospect than Rodriguez ever was for the O’s) and Stafura because he’s more valuable than that and can be used in case of injury and now that that injury has come to fruition, they don’t believe in his ability to perform. It makes little sense to me.
I’m pretty sure you’re mistaken on Grayson. He was the top pitching prospect for the Os around 2020-2021, and was regarded as one of the top pitching prospects in MLB at the time, if not the top.
That said, I wouldn’t place much stock on random Os fans on these boards. You’re likely just reading comments from fickle 13–15 yr olds here, who are just doing the typical homer posts, overrating their own and underrating others. Mayo was a top 12-15 MLB prospect just a couple years ago. Totally understand how prospect stocks rise and fall, but that’s the context Os fans see him. We obviously see that he’s not done anything to match that projection. Trading him now based on his current stats would be a clear Sell Low. We’d just be gaining depth pieces or swapping projects, not loading for a playoff run, which is where the team is at. I’m perfectly OK with trading Mayo, for a fair package, but Im sure all offers for him right now are probably light. I think the team probably wants to see deals approx in the range of the Shane Baz trade for Mayo, something that brings back a significant upgrade or upside in an area of need.
That said, It doesn’t make any sense at this point, since his 3B position is now an area of need.
Sorry, you’re right. Hadn’t seen the previous years where he was highly rated.
Either way, though, I still think the Mayo-Crews comp is true and O’s fans would likely balk at a return for Crews similar to that what had been proposed for Mayo.
I agree that it’s doesn’t make sense at this point but I was responding to the original post which was saying that they should go out and get someone because Mayo isn’t a good enough player to fill in at this moment.
it kinda looks like his head is sliding off his shoulders on the article picture
Some guys get stuck playing waiver wire musical chairs every offseason, Ramos is one of them this winter (along with Osvaldo Bido, Zak Kent, Ben Rortvedt, Tsung-Che Cheng)
Marco Luciano too
Orioles love picking up those .200 hitters
And may well have the best lineup in the league when all is said and done. Imagine that!
Need everything to go right for that to even be a thought. We’re currently in the everything is going wrong phase.
Top 6-7 would be nice.
over/under on how many more times he is DFA’d before opening day?
Just pay Ramon Urias!
Good idea, Curt. And there’s proof now since you posted that Chaim Bloom thought the same thing and signed Urias.
maybe they’ll trade him for Mountcastle.
On the road again!