Yohan Ramirez will no longer wear a New York Mets uniform. The recently designated for assignment reliever was traded to the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday after the Mets annihilated the Atlanta Braves 16-4.
For the record, anything relating to April 11 must hereafter include a remembrance of the absolute beating Atlanta took. Mark it on your calendar for next year. Until the Braves win against the Mets again, make every effort to note their last game against the Mets was a 16-4 squashing.
Sent further away in playoff implications than geographically, Ramirez will have an opportunity to immediately make the early season feud between the Mets and Milwaukee Brewers a little more personal. Conveniently, it's Rhys Hoskins and the Brewers who play Ramirez's new club this weekend.
Does the Mets feud with Rhys Hoskins and the Brewers pop its head out of the sand here?
This isn't exactly a case of the O's acquiring a pitcher to work as an enforcer for an evening or two. This is one of those glitches in the matrix. The only team better for Ramirez to end up with would've been the Brewers. Maybe a fellow NL Central rival would be fun. What about the Philadelphia Phillies where a Hoskins homecoming would have this added distraction?
The young up-and-coming Orioles will be in the same exact spot as the Mets were with Ramirez. The out of options reliever will need to prove he belongs in a very short period of time. A folk hero for some Mets fans, it wasn't his time against the Brewers that had the Mets pulling the plug. Slaughtered last Saturday versus the Cincinnati Reds, Ramirez was in part victimized by the club's lack of roster flexibility with its bullpen.
A seemingly savvy pickup in the offseason, the schedule played a big part in his dismissal. The Mets were saved slightly with Wednesday's rainout. After embarrassing the Braves on Thursday by a score of 16-4, (again, let's not skip an opportunity to mention this) they play six more home games before a day off.
Ramirez wasn't around with the Mets long enough for us to keep tabs on him for any great length of time. For at least one weekend, we do have something to watch for. Does the blood feud spill over from one jersey to the next with it being more about the people than the teams? Considering Ramirez was more martyr than instigator, it’ll probably take another ironically wild pitch against the Brewers for this battle to rage on further.