Detroit Tigers: Keeping Nick Ramirez Around Would Be A Good Thing

In a rebuild, the names will constantly be filtering in and out over the next few years as the team weeds out who should stay with the Detroit Tigers and who should not. Nick Ramirez is a perfect candidate of a player who should remain with the team through the continuation of this rebuild.

Currently on track to have one of the worst seasons ever, the Detroit Tigers have seemingly forgotten what winning is during this rebuild. This Tigers team is rebuilding and trying to decipher which players and prospects should remain for the long haul. Keeping around prospects will be much more commonplace than keeping around veterans on short contracts like Bobby Wilson or Jordy Mercer.

Nick Ramirez is the perfect candidate of a player who should be kept around that is not a “top prospect” or and “old veteran.” The twenty-nine-year-old has not recorded batting or pitching stats at the major league level during the extent of his baseball career, and the Tigers are finally giving him a chance. For those who do not know, Ramirez has had quite the road that lead to the Tigers organization starting out as a positional player, first baseman to be exact.

After being converted to a pitcher, the Detroit Tigers have allowed for him to get his first crack at the big leagues and first chance to face big-league talent. In twenty-four games for the Tigers during the 2019 season, Ramirez has a 4.68 ERA, with a 1.30 WHIP, and forty-seven strikeouts through fifty innings tossed. He has given up forty-five hits and seven home runs for the Tigers this season which may not be the prettiest numbers but take a more in-depth look.

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Using MLB’s Statcast, looking at Ramirez’s stats makes him look much better. This may sound beyond crazy, but there’s a Tigers player near the top of the leaderboard for a good/positive statistic which should be shocking. Ramirez is in the top 8% of the league in Hard Hit% on balls over 95+ in exit velocity. Ramirez has also limited his opponents to an average exit velocity of only 86.5 mph which is in the top 15% percent of the league.

Ramirez has been able to capitalize on his opportunities with the Tigers, learning and developing and his traditional numbers may be a little flawed. Keeping him around would allow him to continue developing without a lot of pressure around him while the team is rebuilding. The best thing would be to keep him on the staff and stick him in situations that are higher leverage on a game-by-game basis rather than a colossal stage (playoffs, wild card, divisional race).

It seems like, with all taken into account and assuming the best-case scenario… Ramirez will remain with the Tigers and develop into a solid arm. Ramirez will be a cheap option compared to that of a Tampa Bay Rays pitcher, Ramirez could become one of their pitchers with versatility on usage. Now, the starting rotation may not support this in the future, but it could be guessed at that Ramirez will develop into someone who can pitch the first and second innings as an “opener” or come in any time from the sixth to eighth for one to three innings.

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My bold prediction is that, if the best-case scenario comes true, Ramirez will be a similar player to Ryne Stanek, Ryan Yarbrough with opener/setup/long relief versatility in high leverage scenarios if necessary. This would be the best-case scenario, but keeping him around for cheap money as a middle of the pack reliever would still be worth it for a rebuilding team.

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