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Mariners, Rays Swap Erasmo Ramirez For Mike Montgomery
By Steve Adams [March 31, 2015 at 9:16pm CDT]
The Mariners announced that they have traded right-hander Erasmo Ramirez to
the Rays in exchange for left-hander Mike Montgomery.
Ramirez, 24, enjoyed an excellent rookie season with the Mariners in 2012
when he worked to a 3.36 ERA with 7.3 K/9, 1.8 BB/9 and a 40.4 percent
ground-ball rate in 59 innings, making eight starts and eight relief
appearances. While stats like FIP, xFIP and SIERA all pegged him for a
slightly higher mark — in the 3.55 to 3.75 range — it was a promising debut
for a player that had ranked as the organization’s No. 13 prospect (per
Baseball America) in the previous offseason.
However, Ramirez has fallen on hard times since that impressive debut; over
the past two seasons, he’s recorded just a 5.12 ERA that unfortunately lines
up nearly exactly with his 5.11 FIP. Ramirez’s strikeout and ground-ball
rates have remained similar, but he’s seen his control take a step back,
averaging 3.7 walks per nine innings in that time while becoming increasingly
homer-prone.
Ramirez was out of Minor League options, meaning he would have been required
to clear waivers before the Mariners could send him outright to Triple-A. The
Rays then appear likely to keep him on the 25-man roster and hope for better
results from Ramirez at the back of an injury-plagued rotation. In addition
to Matt Moore, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, the Rays will also
open the season without Drew Smyly at full strength. Alex Cobb and Alex
Colome have both been slowed by injuries this spring as well, which has led
to a well-known search for rotation depth in Tampa.
Montgomery, who turns 26 in July, was once one of the crown jewels of a
vaunted Royals farm system, but his career stalled upon reaching the Triple-A
level. Montgomery posted ERAs of 5.32 and 6.07 in his first two years
reaching that level, and he’s struggled at lower levels since. All told, he
has a 4.98 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9 in parts of four seasons at
Triple-A.
The Rays acquired Montgomery from the Royals in the James Shields/Wil Myers
blockbuster in hopes of revitalizing his career. However, while his numbers
improved a bit — 4.29 ERA in 25 starts at Triple-A last year — he’s yet to
show the promise that made him the No. 36 overall pick in the 2008 draft and
one of the game’s top prospects from 2010-12. In their last scouting report
on him, following the 2012 season, BA wrote that Montgomery began
experimenting with a lower arm slot that caused his velocity to dip from the
92-93 mph range to the 88-90 mph range, adding that left-handed hitters were
too comfortable against him. Montgomery is a reclamation project for the
Mariners, but although he’s on the 40-man roster, he, unlike Ramirez, has an
option remaining and can therefore hope to rediscover himself in the Minors
in 2015.