Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Adding on to their 60-man player pool for the alleged start of the 2020 season, the Dodgers signed right-hander AJ Ramos to a minor-league deal (that’s a really weird term now when there’s no minor league season) on Thursday.
Ramos, formerly of the Mets and Marlins, hasn’t pitched since the 2018 season. An All-Star in 2016 with the Marlins, when he served as their closer and finished the year with 40 saves and a 2.81 ERA across 64 IP, the 33-year-old Ramos had some videos sent out in the past few weeks/days.
It has been awhile since he’s been fully healthy, with surgery for a torn labrum more than two years ago meaning he last pitched in the majors on May 26, 2018. Between 2012 and 2017, Ramos was worth 4.4 WAR for the Marlins with a 39.9 GB%, a 27.6 K% and a 12.6 BB%. Things didn’t go quite as well in his quick tenure with the Mets, with the rates moving to 32.7 GB%, 26.9 K% and a 15.4 BB%.
Obviously it is a low-risk move and those numbers don’t mean much given how long it has been since Ramos achieved them. At the least, it is a pitcher with a decent track record to add to a bullpen we still don’t know much about (and one that can’t really afford to blow a bunch of games should this shortened season actually happen).
Ramos joins a 60-man roster that already included 28 pitchers among the initial 51 players listed on it, though it sure sounds like some of them might not be exactly healthy right now.
