The deal is official, as per the Pirates’ Twitter account: Aramis Ramirez will finish his career as a Pittsburgh Pirate (assuming he doesn’t change his mind from his pre-season statement that this is his last year), while the Pirates will send Yhonathan Barrios to Milwaukee in return.
Presumably the idea here for the Pirates is for Ramirez to play third base while Josh Harrison’s out, then either for Ramirez to slide into a bench role or for him to stay at third and let Josh Harrison get at-bats in the outfield, depending on how he and Polanco play over the next month. Ramirez has never played one big league inning at first base, so I sincerely doubt he’s being looked at as even a platoon partner for Pedro Alvarez at first base.
As short-term patches go, Ramirez seems like a decent one. He’s not having a great year (wRC+ 94), but he’s hitting well in July (.352/.422/.500) and he had an awful April that’s dragging his numbers down. He’s still got some pop (.430 SLG on the season), which the Pirates need pretty desperately. He’s obviously quite a bit better than Brent Morel or Sean Rodriguez at the plate, even at this point in his career. The Pirates aren’t giving up a lot for him, either (Barrios is a 5’10” reliever with a 5.2 K/9 as a 23-year old in Triple-A), so it’s difficult to not like this trade. Ramirez should help the Pirates get through the next month until they get healthy, and after that he should, at the very least, be the right-handed bench bat that the Pirates thought they were getting in Corey Hart over the winter. Plus, it’s kind of cool that 12 years after he was salary-dumped off to the Cubs in the most disastrous trade in franchise history, he’s back to make one last run at his first pennant with the Pirates.
Image credit: Vincent Laforet, Allsport
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