MLB: 5 players who will be traded by the July 31 deadline
By Will Osgood
3B Aramis Ramirez, Milwaukee Brewers
Before we get to Aramis Ramirez moving teams, I need to take a moment to explain the rationale up to this point in having three pitchers, and Ramirez now being the first position player.
You would think with the league being so pitcher-friendly that pitching would be less in demand, while hitting should be the thing teams are turning over every rock to find. Yet it seems that even as advanced as we are in 2015 with our sabermetrics – every franchise, uses them to some degree or another – teams are still caught up in a lot of old dogma and tradition.
The expression, “you can never have enough pitching” was true 50 years ago. It was especially true in the golden age of the sluggers in the 90s and early 2000s. It’s only moderately true today, though.
What makes a team like the Cubs so intriguing (and I confess I’m biased here) is the model they are using to basically flip that statement on its head. The Cubs, behind Theo Epstein, have pretty much decided pitching is constant throughout baseball.
In other words, every team is going to be roughly the same. Of course there will be outliers, but the difference between the teams in the middle of pack is rather minute. Epstein believed Jon Lester represented an opportunity for the Cubs to jump to the top in pitching while not sacrificing any of what he was really building.
And what he was really creating is a potentially dominant offense, which would represent a market inefficiency. Epstein wants his Cubs to have one of the best offenses in baseball during this era where run production is hard to come by.
The point is, forward-thinking teams like the Cubs, Pirates and Astros – all noted sabermetrics-minded teams – are thinking offense first (interestingly they all sport upper-echelon starting staffs as well).
The Cubs are not going to bring back Ramirez, I wouldn’t think. The Pittsburgh Pirates could bring him back to finish his career where it started, though doing so might make Josh Harrison again a utility player or send Pedro Alvarez to the bench.
The Cardinals might consider Ramirez a cheaper option to fill what seems like a hole at first base than one of the final men later mentioned on this list. American League teams who believe they have a hole at designated hitter could give strong consideration to adding Ramirez as well.
Before we get too far down what could be a rabbit trail, we must ask whether a team would want Ramirez. He’s hitting just .213 with a weak .388 slugging percentage. His OPS is just .640. Obviously those are not great marks.
He does have seven home runs, which isn’t bad for this point in the year. He’s done it in 54 games and less than 200 plate appearances. So he is not a superstar, nor the 25-plus home run, 100-plus RBI guy he was for the Cubs in the middle of the 2000s.
But he is an experienced hitter with a proven track record of excellence. He can still make contact.
And to get as sentimental as anywhere in this entire article, Ramirez is set to retire after this season. He has yet to earn a World Series championship. The closest he’s ever come in his career is the fateful Bartman game in 2003 with Chicago.
He’s not going to do it this year with the Milwaukee Brewers.
As he is one of the most underrated players of this generation, the baseball purist/enthusiast in me says he deserves an opportunity to compete for a championship in his final season.
For exactly what team he gets that opportunity, I know not, but I say he deserves it. I’ll start a petition if I have to.
Next: Will Philadelphia hold a going out of business fire sale?