I love Heliot Ramos. In 2024, his breakout season, I decided he would be my new favorite baseball player after enduring years of listless Giants teams. I created a mini-shrine for him with autographed and jersey patch cards, and game-used and autographed balls.
Unfortunately, he’s now a Yankee. However, I feel happy for him and the Giants.
On the surface, you might ask why. He is:
- A homegrown San Francisco Giant and a 2024 All-Star.
- A player with huge power—the only right-handed hitter ever to reach McCovey Cove with a home run during a game.
- By every public indication, a genuinely good guy—and certainly someone I enjoyed rooting for.
- Still early in his career, with three more years of team control after 2026. Teams usually retain young, productive players because they are relatively affordable and can contribute for years.
Ramos was also a poor, but recently improving, left fielder, an average baserunner, and a hitter who had not quite translated all of his ability into consistent production.
For the Giants, however, it made sense. Ramos was an above-average, but not star-level, hitter playing the least demanding defensive outfield position – roughly the outfield equivalent of first base. Center fielders must cover far more ground and are therefore much harder to find, while teams can often place a strong hitter with limited range in left field.
The Giants have several plausible ways to replace some of that offense in left field:
- Casey Schmitt started learning left field this year while breaking out as a hitter, ranking above the 90th percentile in expected batting average and expected slugging. He is an exceptional third baseman, but Matt Chapman blocks him there, and he can also play second base.
- Victor Bericoto has played really well since being called up earlier this year but is injured at the moment. In a very small sample, 59 plate appearances, he hit .293/.305/.552 with four home runs, good for a 138 OPS+. He’s only walked once so far, however, but had a solid 7.6% walk rate in AAA this year. His scouting profile has long centered on good power and defensively, he looks reasonably athletic with a strong throwing arm.
- Parks Harber is now in Triple-A and has produced a 131 wRC+ in Double-A and a 157 wRC+ in Triple-A. He could become a legitimate major-league hitter, but he still needs a defensive home.
- Outfield prospects Bo Davidson, now in Triple-A, and Dakota Jordan, now in Double-A, also provide longer-term possibilities. Both currently play center field in the minors but could eventually move to a corner.
In summary, there is at least one reasonable option at LF next year, with other developing options. Center field is by far the bigger problem. They do not need one player to reproduce Ramos exactly. They just need enough offense across the roster to permit a more defensively useful outfield. Ramos was valuable, but the type of value he provided was easier to replace than the athleticism and defense the Giants still need in center field.
From the Yankees’ perspective, Ramos’s surface numbers looked ordinary this year: a .264 batting average, nine home runs in 74 games, and roughly league-average overall production. His underlying contact metrics, however, describe a hitter with considerably more offensive potential:
- 92.4 mph average exit velocity, 90th percentile
- 50.3% hard-hit rate, 90th percentile
- 15.7% barrel rate, 94th percentile
- .274 expected batting average, 82nd percentile
- .491 expected slugging percentage, 86th percentile
- .341 expected wOBA, 69th percentile
In plain English, when Ramos made contact, he hit the ball harder and more productively than almost every hitter in baseball, even though his overall results looked average.
Critics can reasonably point to Ramos’s poor walk rate. But the decline was not isolated to him: Adames, Lee, Chapman, Devers and Schmitt also walked substantially less this season. That suggests the Giants may have encouraged a more aggressive, contact-oriented approach, although it is difficult to separate coaching from individual execution. Ramos had already spent 2025 searching for a different balance, walking more often and regularly batting leadoff but producing less power.
I believe the Yankees offer him a credible opportunity to turn those tools into more consistent production for several reasons:
- The clearest explanation for the gap between Ramos’s contact quality and his results is that he hit too many balls on the ground this year. His ground-ball rate had previously been near the league average at roughly 44%. This year it climbed to 53%.
- His average launch angle fell from 10.4 degrees in 2024 and 11.5 degrees in 2025 to approximately 6 degrees in 2026. His pulled airborne-contact rate fell from 11.9% in 2024 and 14.3% in 2025 to roughly 9.7% in 2026. If he can return to his previous launch profile, more of that elite contact should become extra-base hits and home runs. Yankee Stadium could amplify the improvement, although elevating the ball is the more important variable.
- Ramos has a career .279/.345/.501 line against left-handed pitching, including an extraordinary .370/.439/.750 season in 2024.
- He has not been as successful against right-handed pitching, but in 2025 he hit .260/.333/.392 with a 106 wRC+, showing that he can be at least an average hitter without the platoon advantage.
- Yankee Stadium is also a much more favorable home-run environment. Its home-run park factor is 119, compared with 79 for Oracle Park, with 100 representing a neutral stadium. The full difference will not necessarily apply to a right-handed hitter such as Ramos, but moving out of one of baseball’s most suppressive parks should give his power more room to translate into actual home runs.
- Trent Grisham is the Yankees’ primary center fielder and remains a legitimately strong defender, with two Gold Gloves. Grisham can cover more ground in center, allowing Ramos to remain in a corner and reducing the amount of difficult territory the overall outfield must ask him to handle.
- Ramos will also join a much deeper lineup featuring Aaron Judge, Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger. He can hit lower in the order instead of serving as a primary run producer. The Yankees can use him more selectively, particularly against left-handed pitching, while giving him time to work through adjustments.
Ramos still seems unfinished as a hitter. Over the past three years, he has shifted between emphasizing power, making more contact and getting on base without finding a stable balance. He has the physical tools to become a very good hitter, and I believe the Yankees may give him the structure and role to find that balance.
In the end, I am excited for him and the Giants, and I’ll continue following him closely.
I Spit Hot Fire 