How Ramos Went From Giants Early Cut to MLB All-Star originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – The initial feeling for Heliot Ramos was one of shockbut when he started telling family and friends that he would represent the Giants in the MLB All-Star Game, other emotions flooded. Ramos burst into tears as he read a congratulatory text message from his high school coach and had a memorable phone call with his parents, who never lost faith, even when Triple-A seemed impossibly far from the big leagues.
“They always knew what I could bring to the table,” he said last week. “But no one expected me to be here now.”
Mothers are their son’s biggest fans, but not even Norma Ramos could have imagined that things would turn out so well. Ramos’ parents were thrilled to hear the news last weekend, but then reality set in for his mother. She will not be able to watch the game. She is going to Spain on vacation with a close friend.
“She’s so angry,” Heliot said, laughing. “She’s so angry. She’s been planning that trip for two months now.”
It’s impossible to blame Ms. Ramos for the scheduling. Two months before his son was named an All-Starhe was in Triple-A, seemingly out of the plans of an organization that hadn’t developed a homegrown All-Star outfielder since 1986.
This All-Star season literally came out of nowhere. Ramos admits he was surprised and it’s not difficult to understand how the organization feels.
On March 11, Ramos was part of a series of roster changes that could one day be printed and framed on the wall at Oracle Park if things continue like this.
During one of the first rounds of cuts, the Giants optioned seven players to the minors, including Ramos, Brett Wisely, Randy Rodriguez and Erik Miller.
In retrospect, it seems like a misjudgment of the availability of some of the young players to contribute, but there was a reason for the timing of the changes. If players on the 40-man roster are injured on the big league field, they will end up in the Major League IL, accruing service time and earning a big league salary. Most teams are extremely cautious with prospects who likely won’t be ready by the end of camp.
Miller ended up returning in the late spring and making the Opening Day roster. Rodriguez found his groove at Triple-A in April and has been a boost to the bullpen since making his debut on May 4. He wisely appeared on May 12 and quickly became the team’s most consistent midfielder.
But nobody fall to the ground running like Ramos, who admits he was “obviously not happy” when he was picked so early in camp, but says he doesn’t remember much about the quick meeting. Maybe that explains why he was so successful in his third stint as a big leaguer.
Ramos became a father in the off-season and his natural exuberance increases a bit when talking about his daughter. Any bad days or disappointing decisions from your superiors are much easier to swallow when you come home to a smiling newborn.
Becoming a father changed his outlook on life, but it was a change in his approach that allowed him to become an everyday player, someone who hit 14 home runs with an .888 OPS in 60 games after being drafted. One thing Ramos remembers from that March meeting is the directive to have better pitch selection, and Giants officials saw that when he overcame Triple-A pitching in April.
“If you had told me last year or two years ago, ‘Hey, Heliot is going to get to the point where he’s going to have high-quality at-bats in the big leagues,’ I would have had a lot of confidence that he would be a productive player at this level,” he said. president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. “That was really the last part of his development. All credit to him, the fact that he really takes pride in this is what gives us a lot of hope and confidence that this will continue and he will continue on his upward trajectory.”
The current trajectory leads to some interesting conversations about Ramos’ development. He was called up in the first round by the previous regime, but was developed by it. You can give credit to this team for helping him get to this point, but you can also point out that AJ Pollock and an inexperienced Wade Meckler were among those who got opportunities last year while Ramos waited for consistent shooting.
In the end, perhaps Zaidi said it best when he said “all credit to him.” Ramos hit .158 with one home run over a 76-hit spread over the previous two seasons, but he didn’t let that get him down. When the Giants needed to activate Brandon Crawford for the final game of last season and chose Ramos as the pick, he didn’t let bitterness take over. That day, as he left Oracle Park, he spoke excitedly about returning to the gym when he got home.
“It’s not easy being up and down, trying to get hits, trying to stay steady, but it is what it is,” he said last week. “It’s part of the deal, it’s part of the plan. That’s what baseball is all about. I can’t fight, I can’t argue, I just have to do what I have to do.”
When he was hired in March, Ramos recalled his Winter Ball experience. While playing for Santurce in Puerto Rico, he saw that the only thing that mattered in that league was winning the game.
“It doesn’t matter who you are,” he said. “If you’re not winning, you’re not doing anything.”
That’s been the theme of his postgame interviews over the past two months, and there have been a lot of them. Ramos is not only the Giants’ best player since his debut on May 8, but also one of the best in baseball. Since that day, he ranks seventh in the NL in Wins Above Replacement.
What started as an unlikely thought turned into a wise decision at the end of June. Ramos belonged in Arlington for the All-Star Game, and as the Giants continue to build their future, they may do so around a 24-year-old who has been playing like an all-star for a few months now.
It’s potentially a franchise-altering development, but Ramos and the Giants aren’t looking too far ahead. They’re still trying to figure out an All-Star selection for a player who was sent back to the minors four months ago and aren’t sure when he would have a chance to return.
“I don’t remember (an All-Star) having that kind of year, where he was one of the first guys sent to spring training, limited at-bats in his big league career, never gave much of an opportunity, and When he was given an opportunity, he took advantage of it to such an extent that I don’t think I’ve seen anything that extreme,” said coach Bob Melvin. “Credit to him, it’s hard work, the skill was always there, it needed to be brought out. With some success, he blossomed and prospered, and is now a National League All-Star.”
