Like the proverbial second little pig, the Yankees need sticks. They got one yesterday in Luis García Jr., and with less than an hour to go before the 6pm official trade deadline today, Jeff Passan has reported that they will add Heliot Ramos of the Giants to the team’s outfield, sending at least pitcher Henry Lalane and infielder Kaeden Kent to the Bay Area in the process. Ramos is exactly a league-average hitter this year with San Fransisco, which right now makes him the third-best hitting outfielder on the team, and the supposed No. 2, Max Schuemann, has already been demoted after the García deal.
Two years ago, Ramos was a genuine asset for the Giants, a two-and-a-half win season that saw a 120 wRC+, a number that would be manna from heaven for this current outfield cohort. A key driver of that success was a 39-percent opposite-field hit rate, the highest of Heliot’s career. Remember, there’s a reason why Ramos became the first righty hitter in Oracle Park history to hit one into McCovey Cove:
This year, Ramos is showing his best hard-hit rate of his life, and you can piece together what the Yankees would see in that. If they’re able to pair that right-field approach from ‘24 while keeping his hard hit rate up, then you have hard fly balls and line drives to the 314 sign, a Luke Voit-esque tactic of hitting.
Of course, that’s if they’re able to do that, with exactly 50 games to go in the season. Ramos is a pretty terrible defender, seeing most of his time in left field this year but being +1 by DRS and -2 by Outs Above Average. A league-average bat is useful—particular right now with the Yankees down an Aaron Judge and a Cody Bellinger in the outfield—but I don’t really expect this to be a true impact move. He will probably take some time from Jasson Domínguez and/or Spencer Jones. I’m hopeful that means there’s some positive news coming on the injury fronts, but at the same time I can’t help but imagine Brian Cashman seriously miscalculated the trade market this year.
Ramos won’t be with the Yankees until tomorrow in all likelihood, as the Giants are down in Arlington taking on the Rangers. We’ll then probably get our first look at the newest Bronx Bomber in game two of New York’s set with the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday. Hooray?
