2022 Diamondbacks Reviews, #33: Noé Ramirez

Dec 4, 2022 - 1:00 AM

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Voting breakdown

Overview

• Rating: 3.61
• 2022 stats: 55 G, 50.0 IP, 45 H, 32 R, 29 ER, 9 HR, 26 BB, 51 SO, 5.22 ERA, 5.15 FIP, -0.8 bWAR
• Date of birth: December 22, 1989 (32 years old)
• 2022 earnings: $1.25 million
• 2023 status: Designated for assignment on September 1, and released on September 3.

2022 review

Noé Ramirez had joined the Diamondbacks in May 2021. He had been designated for assignment by the Angels, and had enough service time to be able to refuse the minor-league assignment and elect free agency. Four days later, he signed with the D-backs, re-uniting with manager Torey Lovullo. Noé was stashed in Reno for a month, until he replaced Keury Mella in our bullpen on June 18. Ramirez was actually pretty good in the second half, pitching 32.2 innings with a 2.76 ERA and a 3.48 FIP. That got him a spot on the Opening Day roster in 2022. It began well enough. Ramirez posted a 1.80 ERA in ten April innings, holding opponents to a .188 average, and earning praise for his calm mound presence.

The problems started on a road trip to Miami, where Ramirez was torched for five runs in 1.1 innings across a pair of outings there. The problem seemed to be that Noé had a tendency to let outings snowball out of control quickly. Despite the ERA above five, of 55 outings this year, almost three-quarters (41) were scoreless - league average is around 70%. The issue was, the ones that weren’t, tended to result in multiple runs (8 times) rather than just one (6 times). 17 of the 29 earned runs he allowed, came in just five appearances covering a mere three innings. For example, on June 7 in Cincinnati, he was charged with five runs while retiring two batters, before being relieved on the mound, embarrassingly, by Jake Hager

It seemed as if, every time Ramirez’s ERA became reasonable, he’d have one of these shaky outings, and it would bloat upwards again. Now, every pitcher will have bad days. But they seemed to become more frequent for Noé, and he fell apart entirely towards the end of August, being unable to find the strikezone with a map. Here’s his line over the final five appearances as a Diamondback:
Noé Ramirez: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 6 BB, 1 SO, 1 HR, 17.18 ERA
That’s not a sustainable K:BB ratio, to put it mildly. The D-backs decided whatever the issue was, it was unfixable, and four days after his last appearance, he was released entirely.

I was a little sad about that, since Ramirez always seemed like a nice, personable guy. He and his family started a charity this year, and he collects old roots reggae records. His stuff was never overpowering. yet more often than not he got the job done and there were times when, squinting a little, I could see him developing into a decent set-up man. However, that clearly didn’t happen. His overall numbers this year were well below replacement, and over those last couple of weeks, terrible is not an exaggeration.

2023 outlook

The fact no-one was interested in Ramirez at the end of August suggests he’s not going to get another guaranteed contract next year. Still, he remains an eight-year veteran with more than 250 major-league appearances to his name, so I’d not be surprised to see a minor-league contract and an invite to spring training in his future somewhere. Probably not from the Diamondbacks though.