Giants promoting top 100 prospect Heliot Ramos

The Giants are promoting outfield prospect Heliot Ramos to the big leagues, as initially reported by Munger English Sports Management (Ramos’ agency). Ramos is expected to make his debut Sunday against the Marlins.

With southpaw Trevor Rogers scheduled to start for Miami, the right-handed hitting Ramos is a logical fit for Sunday’s lineup, and perhaps for throughout the season given the left-handed tilt of the Giants outfield. Mike Yastrzemski, Joc Pederson, Steven Duggar, and the currently-injured LaMonte Wade Jr. all swing from the left side, though San Francisco has Darin Ruf, Austin Slater, Mauricio Dubon, and Luke Williams as available right-handed bats. Utilityman Williams might end up being the odd man out to make room for Ramos, as Williams still has three minor league options.

The 22-year-old Ramos has long been seen as one of the Giants’ best prospects, and he has been a regular on top-100 rankings since he was selected 19th overall in the 2017 draft.  His stock has somewhat dropped as a result of not playing in 2020 and a 2021 campaign that saw Ramos hit a modest .254/.323/.417 over 495 combined plate appearances at the Double-A and Triple-A levels.  Still, The Athletic’s Keith Law rated Ramos 70th on his preseason top-100 list,  Baseball America had Ramos in the 94th spot, and Fangraphs has Ramos ranked 101st.

Ramos just turned 22 in September, and BA’s scouting report notes that Ramos has made his way up the minor league ladder “usually as one of the younger players at every stop.”  Along the way, Ramos has shown glimpses of his potential, if there is some master-of-none aspect to his performance.  As Fangraphs’ report puts it, “while it’s easy to call him a five-tool player since he’s competent in every aspect of the game, scouts struggle to figure out what Ramos’ one carrying tool is.”

At the plate, Ramos has hit .270/.340/.448 over 1625 PA in the minors, with 47 homers and 41 steals (out of 64 attempts). He has also struck out in 440 of those at-bats, and evaluators note that his swing lacks some loft and that Ramos has looked a little susceptible to off-speed pitches. Ramos is expected to eventually move to right field due to his relative lack of top-tier speed and his good throwing arm, but Ramos has mostly played as a center fielder throughout his career and has looked decent up the middle. The Giants are likely to use Ramos primarily in center, though he has the flexibility to play at any of the three outfield positions.

Ramos hit well in the small sample sizes of Spring Training (10 PA) and the early stages of the Triple-A season (13 PA).  While he didn’t break camp with the team, his quick promotion means that Ramos should still clock a full year of service time should he remain on San Francisco’s active roster for the remainder of the season. The newly-instituted Prospect Promotion Incentive could also somewhat mitigate the Giants’ service-time concerns, though Ramos may technically not qualify. Per The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, prospects are PPI eligible if they “are included in two or more of the preseason top-100 prospect lists put out by Baseball America, MLB.com or ESPN,” and of those three specific outlets, Ramos only cracked BA’s list.