Pirates History: When Aramis Ramírez came back to Pittsburgh

It can be incredibly frustrating watching some of your favorite players get dealt to another club, especially when that club is one of your rivals. One of the worst trades in Pirates history falls under this criterion, when Aramis Ramírez went to the Cubs, along with Kenny Lofton. In return, Pittsburgh received Matt Bruback, a pitching prospect that never made it to the majors, José Hernández, who’s best days were well behind him, and Bobby Hill, the centerpiece of the trade that has become the butt of many jokes from Pirates fans in the years since.

While it’s easy to say that the Pirates should have kept Ramírez, and that perhaps keeping him would have resulted in greater success all around, there’s more to him as a player (and what the Pirates were as a team back then) than comes across in this conclusion. For the most part, that era's Pirates were a laughingstock with a few great players that never had any chance of seriously competing. The division was much stronger in comparison to today's NL Central. The Cardinals always seemed to be in it, led by one of the greatest hitters of all time in Albert Pujols. Ramírez’s Cubs teams took first and made the postseason several times as well.

The Pirates initially signed Ramírez as a 16-year-old out of the Dominican Republic in 1994. He began his professional career in ‘96. Ramírez impressed with the Erie Sea Wolves, then a Class A short-season team in the New York-Penn League.

In 61 games, he hit .305 with nine long balls and drove in 42 runs. In his first full season of minor league action, Ramírez’s power developed after he was promoted to the Lynchburg Hillcats of the Advanced A level, hitting what would be a career-high 29 home runs for his time in the minors. He made his major league debut the following season at just 19 years old. For a time, he was the youngest player in the league. By then, he was one of the top prospects in the game, with Baseball America ranking him as their fifth-best going into 1998. 

Ramírez split his time between the Pirates and Triple-A Nashville in ‘98. He struggled in his first taste of the majors, hitting just .235 with an OPS of .646. He’d spend most of 1999 with the Nashville Sounds, where he returned to form with a .328 average and 21 home runs, but did not perform well whenever given the opportunity with the big league club. 2000 was more of the same for him, with slightly better results. He finally broke out with the Pirates in their first season at PNC Park.

While the team would go on to lose 100 games in 2001, Ramírez maintained a slash line of .300/.350/.536 with a whopping 34 home runs and 112 runs batted in. While the future didn’t necessarily look bright in Pittsburgh, they had one of the game's rising stars. Beyond Ramírez, the Pirates’ best player was the oft-overlooked Brian Giles, who was hitting like Juan Soto at the time.

This incredible production from Ramírez didn’t extend into the 2002 season. In fact, Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs both deemed his efforts as below replacement level for the year. Unsurprisingly, as a player of his caliber, he bounced back in ‘03, though not to the heights he reached previously. News of the infamous deal to Chicago, orchestrated by then owner Kevin McClatchy and general manager Dave Littlefield, broke the night of July 22nd. Their reasoning? Does it matter?

It was a move we’ve all seen too often, as fans of a small market franchise that prioritizes profit over winning. In effort to cut payroll, Ramírez, Lofton, Giles and Jeff Suppan were all gone. Does this sound familiar? While Jason Bay and Óliver Pérez were part of the return for Giles, it’s no excuse for this pattern of behavior that’s plagued the game we care about so much for so long.

While the 2003 season was a return to form offensively for Ramírez, he did end up leading the majors with 33 errors. He was a player known for his consistency at the plate, not with the glove, though his defense would improve as his career progressed. It’s hard to say that Ramírez with the Cubs was one of the best third baseman of the decade, given he was competing with the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Adrian Beltré, Miguel Cabrera, Chipper Jones, Scott Rolen and David Wright. He was never that superstar many Pirates fans later imagined him being, but he was certainly among the best at his position for a time.

Pirates' Aramis Ramírez: A great "what if" or an overstated legacy?

With Chicago, he was a three time All-Star and won the Silver Slugger in 2011. The Cubs made it to the NLCS in ‘03, but lost to the eventual champion Marlins in devastating fashion. Steve Bartman controversy aside, Ramírez had a strong series, hitting a grand slam in the first inning of Game 4 off Dontrelle Willis.

The Cubs returned to the playoffs in ‘07 and ‘08, repeating as NL Central champs. Both runs ended in sweeps, first to the D-Backs, then the Dodgers. Ramírez was a top dog for them, alongside Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano. Cubs fans would have to endure a few more years of the Curse of the Billy Goat before finally ending their century-plus World Series drought in 2016. Ramírez, soon to become a member of the Cubs Hall of Fame, had hung up his cleats by then.

His Silver Slugger season was the last he split his time at the so-called friendly confines of Wrigley. He signed with Milwaukee that offseason for three years and $36 million. Of course it had to be the Brewers. Ramírez wasn’t slowing down just yet, and ended up having some great years with the Brew Crew, who were coming off a loss in the NLCS to the Red Birds who went and won it all.  

2012 just might have been his very best campaign. His age-34 season was his most valuable by both measures of WAR. It was another year in which he hit .300 with 100 RBI, and for this he received MVP votes for the fifth time in his career (his best finish at ninth). He was also a finalist for the Gold Glove at the hot corner, leading the majors with a .977 fielding percentage. The Brewers finished behind the Pirates from then on during the Bucs' return to relevance. Ramírez knew going into the 2015 season that it would likely be his last. It started out unremarkable, and after a trade back to the team he began his career with, ended unceremoniously.

Through 81 games with the Brewers, he was a replacement-level player, starting to show the signs of his age. He had missed significant time in 2013 due to several recurring knee injuries. The Pirates, hoping to break a long hardware dry spell themselves, made a number of moves at the trade deadline. In addition to acquiring Ramírez, Pittsburgh brought in starter J.A. Happ, relievers Joe Blanton and Joakim Soria, as well as first baseman/outfielder Michael Morse. In the process, they said "so long" to some cash, the once promising José Tábata, and prospects Yhonathan Barrios, JaCoby Jones and Adrian Sampson.  

All in all, these trades worked out quite well, especially with Happ. Barrios headed to Milwaukee in the Ramírez trade. The Colombian righty reliever was never considered a top prospect in the Pirates farm system. He fared well in his cup of coffee with the Brewers, pitching six and two thirds scoreless with seven punch outs. Barrios had looked good for Altoona that year, but wasn’t as fortunate after making the jump to Indianapolis. He also spent time with the Brewers' Double-A affiliate, the Biloxi Shuckers, before making his big league debut.

Barrios pitched in the Venezuelan winter league that offseason, but missed all of 2016 because of a shoulder injury. He returned the following spring as a non-roster invitee, but didn’t break camp. Most recently, Barrios has pitched in the Columbian winter league with the Barranquilla Giants for the 2021-22 season. His ERA in 5.2 innings was 17.47. Yikes! 

2015 was the last great Pirates team, though their run ended about as unspectacularly as Ramírez’s career. Before he came over from Milwaukee, Jung-ho Kang and the loveable Josh Harrison saw the majority of reps at third. Ramírez played 56 games his second stint in Pittsburgh. He was unable to wear his usual No. 16 and opted for No. 17. Would it really have been so hard for first base coach Nick Leyva to give it up? At least Pedro Florimón had the courtesy to offer No. 17. Anyway, the season that brought so much hope and promise to the North Shore ended one fateful night in October.

It was a Tuesday. A suspiciously jacked (I’m only kidding...maybe) soon to be Cy Young Jake Arrietta took the mound for the Cubs opposite our own golden boy Gerrit Cole. Let’s just say, without bringing up too many bad memories, it didn’t work out. Arrietta threw a complete game shutout, racking up 11 Ks in the process. This wasn’t supposed to happen. We were supposed to go on and win the World Series, many thought to themselves. What about J.A. Happ?!

The veteran Ramírez didn’t get the start that night. That honor went to Harrison, who later moved over to short after Ramírez pinch hit for Jordy Mercer in the bottom of the seventh, a move that resulted in a 5-4-3 double play. It, meaning the defeat, could have been worse in retrospect. At least the Cubs would go on to lose the NLCS to the Mets. Still, things only went downhill from there. 2016 was a rough one for us Pirates fans. On the heels of such unprecedented success in recent years, it all fell apart in such little time. Sure, they had a winning record in 2018, but that team was nothing special. Cutch was gone. We were heartbroken. 

Sports fans of every denomination like to believe they know best. Of course, everything looks different in hindsight. The rose-tinted glasses can only obscure so much. It’s easy to come to conclusions and state them confidently well after the fact. Aramis Ramírez is a perfect example of this delusion, with no offense intended towards the player. Had the Pirates kept him all those years they were in the cellar, little would be different, regardless of what your average yinzer has to say on the matter.

They were never one very good, albeit not truly great, bat away from going anywhere. This is not in defense of the Ty Wiggingtons of the world. Most of us just aren’t thinking critically, including yours truly. There’s a lot to consider here. Maybe Freddy Sánchez would have never gotten a chance? Perhaps Ramírez, still at the top of his game in 2012, could have helped them get over the hump and into the playoffs. We’ll never really know. Leave it at a daydream for now.