Former Rays batting average wizard signs with Mexican League club

Poor Harold Ramirez; he can't help but just be himself.

Is he playable defensively? Not really.

Can he take a walk, or mash homers regularly? Nope, can't really do that on a consistent basis either.

But by golly, he could be an energetic ball of fun on the baseball field, and that counts for something.

Now he's taking his unique approach to the game to the Mexican League after spending a significant portion of 2024 with the Washington Nationals.

However, before his fall out of the MLB, Ramirez was a valuable member of the Rays dominant 2023 team, posting a 127 wRC+ and a .313 batting average, both of which were career highs.

He wasn't able to do much else in regards to getting on base via walk, with a .353 OBP, and he only managed to hit 12 homers, but he did do that one thing (get base hits) pretty darn well for a year.

It just didn't last, as he was designated for assignment by the Rays last year and wound up with the Nationals, where his production fell off a cliff and ended up culminating to a -0.6 WAR for the season.

The biggest flaw in Ramirez' game has always been his defense, as he lacks a position where he's even playable.

At first, he's posted a career -4 OAA over a little under 300 innings, and in the outfield, he's even worse, with a -11 OAA mark in just under 2000 innings across the 3 outfield spots.

His offense unfortunately, was not enough to make up for those shortcomings, and with his profile he had a pretty short leash.

Without a true defensive home and no real power or on-base ability Ramirez had to BABIP his way to a spot in the majors, and that's simply not a sustainable approach.

His process stats don't suggest he was playing better than his production would suggest either; it's mostly lower percentile rankings in the quality of contact metrics, plate discipline measures, and even his usually low whiff rates shot up.

So while Ramirez could be a very fun and high-energy player at times, his value was limited in more measurable, meaningful ways.

Hopefully he can turn things around in the Mexican League and we'll be seeing the hustlin' Harold in the majors with another team soon.

Because baseball is better when more players play like Harold.