Rangers signing Edubray Ramos, per report

The Texas Rangers are signing pitcher Edubray Ramos to a minor league contract, according to Levi Weaver on Twitter.

Ramos, who turns 28 next week, is a righthanded relief pitcher who was with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020, but never appeared in a major league game (and obviously didn’t pitch in the minors). Though Ramos was originally signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2010, he was released by the Cardinals in February, 2011. Ramos then signed with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2012, and was with the Phillies until becoming a free agent after the 2019 season.

Ramos spent time in the majors from 2016-19, and has a career 3.71 ERA and 3.72 FIP in 155.1 IP over 173 games. As one could guess based on the fact he has fewer innings than games pitched, he has pretty significant platoon splits, holding righthanded hitters to a .230/.303/.328 slash line, while lefties have hit .272/.342/.463 against him. And as one could guess based upon those splits, he relies very heavily on his slider — in the course of his career he has thrown his slider 54.1% of the time, compared to his fastball 42.9%.

Ramos does not go on the Rangers’ (currently full) 40 man roster, assuming he does end up on a minor league deal. He will presumably be vying for a bullpen spot this spring, though as a longshot candidate, and then will be depth in Nashville Round Rock.