2021 Arizona Diamondbacks reviews, #36: Henry Ramos

• Rating: 3.22
• Age: 29
• 2021 Stats: 55 PA, .200/.255/.300 = .555 OPS, 50 OPS+, -0.5 bWAR
• 2021 Earnings: $85,876 (per Spotrac)
• 2022 Status: outrighted to Reno, signed with KT Wiz in the KBO.

Introduction

The Boston Red Sox drafted Henry Ramos out of Puerto Rico in 2010 in the 5th round of that year’s amateur draft. Ramos signed reportedly for $138,200. The right-hander was rather young when he was signed, only 18 years old, and the first seasons he had problems adjusting to professional baseball.

It wasn’t until 2012-13 that he started to produce some decent numbers and in 2014, when he reached Double A, he started to make a name. The prospect sites caught sight of him, and although he wasn’t regarded as a prospect with a very high floor, the forecast of a 4th outfielder type in the MLB was still good.

But disaster struck. Knee injuries wiped out a good 2014 season he was having and much of the 2015 season. Ramos was stuck in Double A in 2014, 2015 and 2016. He ended the 2016 season in Triple A, but the Red Sox had given up hope and cut him loose at the end of the season.

His minor league career continued with the Dodgers in 2017 and 2018, but it never came to a big league debut. In 2019 Ramos appeared in the PCL for the San Francisco Giants affiliate in Sacramento, but again couldn’t leave good vibes behind. In 2020 he signed a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers, but didn’t form part of the 60-man player pool.

It took Henry Ramos quite some time to find a new home for the 2021 season. The cancelled 2020 season probably didn’t do him much favour. He played for the Criollos de Caguas in the Puerto Rican Winter League and the Carribbean Series (amongst his team mates are Yadier Molina and Reno’s Jancarlos Cintrón) and batting just .185/.267./.185 in the latter will not have helped him either.

My guess, however, is that his agent contacted the Diamondbacks as Mike Hazen probably still knew Ramos from his time in Bosten. As such he was prepared to give him a contract as a nice depth option for the club. He signed rather late with the Diamondbacks, the team announcing his signing to a minor league deal on May 21 with the assignment to Reno a day later.

2021 review

Well, some way or the other, we all probably know what happened in Triple A after that. The day of his debut for us in the PCL he went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and 2 runs and, apparently, with an important defensive catch as well. His season in Reno was a triumph and of all players with more than 100 PA for the Aces, Ramos was in the good company of Alek Thomas, Drew Ellis and Cooper Hummel of players with an OPS higher than 1.000.

Thomas wasn’t getting a call-up of course and the team could have chosen to go with Cooper Hummel at a certain moment, but the D-Backs decided to take a look at Henry Ramos to see what he could do for an ailing D-Backs team. Maybe he could be a depth option for the MLB roster in 2022?

On September 5 the Diamondbacks added Henry Ramos to the active roster after Stuart Fairchild had been optioned back (after just a few days) to Reno. No corresponding 40-man roster move had to be done, if I remember correctly this was due to Asdrubal Cabrera being placed on waivers (and subsequently claimed by the Reds).

That same day he would make his MLB debut and get a hit, in a pinch hit appearance, against the Seattle Mariners. That gave food for conversation, especially since just a few days earlier he had, according to some, been pimping a homerun in a game against their Triple A affiliate, which led to a brawl. A couple of days later he would hit his first (and only) homerun in the majors as well.

In the remaining month of the season he got a fair amount of games and plate appearances to show what he can do, but on overall it wasn’t a success. He struck out too much, hardly drew any walks and didn’t hit for much power. His low BABIP shows he might have been a bit unlucky too. Small sample size of course, but he had troubles with off-speed pitches and I thought the following chart was rather funny as well. Straight through the middle:

But he left things to remember as well during his time as a D-Back. Apart from the aforementioned homerun he hit, he also made a spectacular catch in a game against the Dodgers. Perhaps it looked a bit better than it probably was because of his inferior speed, but still a nice running grab and hit into the wall: it got him a nomination for Defensive play of the year on our AZSnakePit.

2022 outlook

Henry Ramos was outrighted off the roster on October 7, together with Ildemaro Vargas and Brandyn Sittinger, just a couple of days after the season finished. The move was a preparation for off-season moves of Rule 5 additions and possible waiver claims the Diamondbacks were planning.

The outlook for any MLB at bats in 2022 were becoming slim in the following weeks. First we had the addition to the 40-man roster of fellow 4th outfielder type Cooper Hummel and some weeks later the trade with the Tampa Bay Rays that got the D-Backs another (possible) outfielder in Jordan Luplow.

The D-Backs apparently gave Henry Ramos and his agent the permission to seek a contract overseas and just a few days ago, on December 1st, the announcement was made that Henry Ramos had signed a contract with newly crowned KBO Champions KT Wiz (South Korea) where he will be expected to achieve an OPS of .750 or more as one of just 3 possible foreign players on an active KBO roster.