Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Carlos Ramirez

The plan was to have these “better know you 40-man” posts all done before the season started, but, as always life gets busy.

You all know the Carlos Ramirez story. Until 2014 he was an outfielder, but his bat suggested he might be better off to find a job that didn’t require him using it.

Pitching has worked out much better for him. Last year he threw 37.2 scoreless innings between New Hampshire and Buffalo. In Toronto he had a 2.70 ERA in 16.2 innings, with 3 walks and 14 strikeouts.

I’m not sure what makes him so unhittable. Fangraphs says he averaged 92.4 MPH on his fastball and his slider didn’t look all that special to me.

I thought he had won himself a spot in the Jays pen for this years to come, but then we added a half dozen veteran arms (good job by the front office) and Ramirez will start the year in the minors and wait for his chance. I’m sure we’ll see him this year. He’ll likely be up and down a few times.

PECOTA figures him to have a 5.64 ERA (I’ll take the under) in 57 innings (I’ll take the under too, there is a little problem when the protection system has a reliever with a 5.5 ERA and still has him throwing 57 innings. If his ERA is north of 5 he won’t get 30 innings). ZiPS has him at a 5.02 ERA and 43 innings.