Pittsburgh Pirates News: Pirates Acquire Wilkin Ramos

The Pirates have acquired a young pitching prospect as a player to be named later from a trade that occurred last week.

Last week, the Pittsburgh Pirates traded away Tanner Anderson to clear a 40-man roster spot to protect players from the rule v draft that takes place during the winter meetings.  In return for Anderson, the Pirates and the Athletics agreed to cash considerations or a player to be named later.

Today, the club announced that they have received a minor league pitcher by the name of Wilkin Ramos to complete the deal:

Ramos is an 18-year-old pitcher that signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2017, and the right-handed pitcher stands at 6’5″ and 165 pounds.  He’ll have room to fill out his body and projection, and the Pirates like young pitchers who they can mold to fit their philosophical pitching style.  This past season for the Athletics DSL team, Ramos has a 3.15 ERA, 22.0 percent strikeout rate, and

John Eshleman, an evaluator at 2080 Baseball, saw Ramos in Instructional League this year and wrote that:

Body and present stuff are a long way off but player oozes physical projection with a clean delivery and arm action. Once he grows into his body, his stuff projects to tick up and his ability to repeat will improve. Deep-projection type with extreme risk.

Fangraphs prospect writers Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel write that:

Ramos has less present stuff — he was 87-90 and touching 92 in the fall, which is actually down a bit from the previous fall — but more physical projection as he’s an ultra-wiry 6-foot-5. He has some feel for a slow, loopy curveball and began using a slider/cutter in the upper-70s last year. He turned 18 on Halloween 2018 and is a long-term developmental project.

The Athletics won’t miss Ramos, as the pitcher is still a long ways from reaching the Major League level based both the 2080 and Fangraphs reports.  There’s risk in this sort of prospect – one that’s a development and ways out – but the Pirates don’t need a player close to the Major League level right now.  The club cleared a spot on their 40-man for an immediate need of protecting players and in return of a player that would have likely been designated for assignment, the Pirates acquired a lottery ticket that won’t need to be on the 40-man for some time.