Ramirez addition a bandage for Rays' injury-riddled rotation
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- For now, he's a decent option to help with necessary repairs.
For now, he's the glue to patch a crack within the Tampa Bay Rays' rotation until the familiar names return.
At first glance, right-hander Erasmo Ramirez's numbers aren't anything that will bring to mind Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez or even Alex Cobb: A 7-12 record with a 4.62 ERA in 47 games (35 starts) during parts of three seasons with the Seattle Mariners.
But Ramirez will serve a purpose. There will be significant expectations after he arrives following a trade late Tuesday that sent left-hander Mike Montgomery to the Pacific Northwest.
Think duct tape. Picture baling wire.
"Our starting depth is deeper after this transaction," said Matt Silverman, the Rays' president of baseball operations. "Erasmo gives us more starting pitching on our club and in our system. While Mike could start, we have him in a relief role, and so now we have more length and more options as we work through the injury challenge that we have in April."
This move is no super-sized surprise. Injuries to Cobb (right forearm tendinitis), Drew Smyly (left shoulder tendinitis), Alex Colome (pneumonia) and Matt Moore (Tommy John surgery) pureed Tampa Bay's plans for its starting pitching to begin the season.
Although the Rays could toy with the idea of making 25-year-old right-hander Matt Andriese a starter -- Silverman and manager Kevin Cash made nothing official in regards to plans for Ramirez on Wednesday morning -- it's likely that the Rays' new acquisition will serve in an early rotation that includes Chris Archer, Jake Odorizzi and Nathan Karns with a fifth starter needed April 14 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Overall, three letters drove this move: F-I-T. Ramirez, 24, is out of minor-league options, and there was no room on the Mariners' 25-man roster for him to find a home there. Montgomery has one minor-league option left, so Seattle has more control with his situation.
Bottom line: Ramirez offers the Rays a quick fix, and Montgomery presents the Mariners with flexibility.
"He's going to a place where he's wanted," Cash said of Montgomery. "We liked him also. Just with the need of what was taking place this spring with some of our pitchers, this probably helps us out more immediately. But Monty had a good camp. ... He was making good strides. So we wish him nothing but the best and success."
Those strides deserve some attention. Montgomery was one of the Other Pieces gained in the seven-player Wil Myers-James Shields trade between the Rays and Kansas City Royals in December 2012. He posted a 2.38 ERA with one save in six games out of the bullpen this spring, and there was an outside chance that he could have earned the temporary fifth-starter spot later this month.
But in a game of F-I-T, Ramirez is the better C-H-O-I-C-E for the Rays. He boasts more major-league experience -- Montgomery has never pitched in a regular-season major-league game, same with Andriese -- and that resume line has cache. There are reasons to be concerned with Ramirez -- yikes, those 31 home runs allowed in 206 2/3 innings -- but Tampa Bay will plug and play and pray for the best.
"When you have a player who has pitched in the majors, started a number of games, you have a better sense of what he can do," Silverman said. "We've faced him before, and we think he can give us those good innings while we work through some of the issues we have with injuries in this first month of the season. And after that, we'll see where it goes."
Where the Rays hope it goes looks something like this: Ramirez giving them long-and-effective starts until Cobb, Smyly and Colome return by the end of April, with a possible bullpen role to follow. He produced five outings of at least six innings in a career-high 17 appearances (14 starts) last year, which ended with a 1-6 record, a 5.26 ERA and six consecutive defeats after winning his first decision. He's primarily a fastball pitcher, having thrown his two-seam offering a season-high 513 times in 2014, per PITCHf/x data.
Sometimes, a team needs bricks to help build a rotation. In other instances, decent adhesive will do.
Ramirez must prove he has the right stuff to become good glue.
"It helps," Cash said of the trade. "But there's still some questions that we have to answer in the next three or four days. But it definitely helps."
Help, not a Herculean effort, is all Tampa Bay needs for now.
You can follow Andrew Astleford on Twitter @aastleford or email him at aastleford@gmail.com.
