Some small moves over the offseason have had a positive effect on the New York Mets. Daniel Duarte, for instance, came over on a minor league deal and has looked excellent in limited action.
Someone who hasn’t looked so hot is Jose Ramos. Jose Who, you may be asking? He was a guy we saw plenty this spring, going 1 for 11 with 7 strikeouts.
Not completely insignificant, Ramos is different from some other random minor league fliers. Only 25, he’s an ex-Los Angeles Dodgers farmhand who has shown promise. They released him anyway despite hitting .295/.359/.557 in 167 plate appearances in Triple-A last year. Maybe because it came in the notoriously hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, the Dodgers felt little need to let him linger around any longer. He became a free agent, the Mets pounced, and they’re learning why the Dodgers let him slip away.
Jose Ramos hasn’t turned into the clever offseason find the Mets hoped he could
Down in Double-A for the entirety of this season, Ramos is batting .214/.331/.378. He does have 13 home runs and with a satisfying OBP, you can tell he knows how to draw a walk. Ramos’ big downfall has been an inability to make contact. Through 357 plate appearances, he has 112 strikeouts.Â
The 31% K rate isn’t an all-time mess yet a continued theme of his career. He had 129 in 411 chances last year during the time he split in Double-A and Triple-A in the Dodgers’ system. Mets minor league coaches haven’t been able to crack the code and find a way to remove the swing and miss quality.
Ramos managed to piece together a strong May after a horrific start to the year. He ended April batting .149/.296/.284. A quick turnaround with a .262/.392/.476 May, he has posted similar numbers in June and July. It included a .674 OPS in June and .679 in July.
Those kinds of numbers aren’t so outrageous if accomplished against major league pitchers. This is Double-A. Overmatched there, it all makes sense. Ramos never was a heist from the Dodgers like we wanted it to be.
