Former White Sox top prospect now pushing hard for Orioles Opening Day roster spot

Bryan Ramos was a White Sox prospect for a long time. He signed with them as a 16-year-old out of Cuba in 2018 and gradually made his way through the minor leagues over the next six seasons before making his debut in 2024. After failing to find his footing on the worst team in baseball, Ramos finds himself in a tight spring training competition for the last spot on the Baltimore Orioles' bench.

Looking back at Ramos' career with the White Sox, it's easy to see where things went wrong. Ramos was steadily progressing through the minors, putting up solid but not spectacular numbers. In 2023, his Double-A slash line was .271/.369/.457, which is a very good slash line, indicating he was probably ready to be promoted to Triple-A.

Instead, the White Sox tried to have him skip Triple-A and go straight to the majors from Double-A. Once in the majors, it was apparent that Ramos was not ready to make that jump. In 108 plate appearances, he slashes .202/.252/.333. In 2025, they tried to give him the Triple-A season he skipped, and he looked terrible.

Bryan Ramos is trying to follow in the footsteps of Ryan O'Hearn with the Orioles

Every offseason, the Orioles identify a few players that they think would be good minor league depth, and they play the DFA game with them until they've got a healthy quantity of Quadreple-A bats and arms to bring to spring training. If any of these players pop, the Orioles aren't afraid to give them a real shot. The most famous example of this in recent years is Ryan O'Hearn, whom the Orioles traded for, DFA'd, outrighted to Norfolk, and then gave him a shot at the major league level, and he never went back down.

When the White Sox DFA'd Ramos, the Orioles were first in line to try and claim him. They tried and failed to sneak him through waivers as they did with O'Hearn in 2023, but the Cardinals (another team whose GM is known for scouting) claimed him. When the Cardinals tried to sneak Ramos through waivers a few days later, the Orioles snatched him back and haven't let him go since.

Now it looks like Ramos is taking advantage of his opportunity. In 11 spring training games, he's been one of the Orioles best hitters. He's slashing .345/.406/.552, but more importantly, his peripheral stats are better than they've been in years. His average exit velocity this spring is 96.9, which would be the highest in the league over the course of a season. His 90th percentile exit velocity (90th percentile exit velocity is way cooler than max exit velocity, haven't you heard?) is up four mph over where it was last year in Triple-A.

The biggest difference under the hood is that he's doing a much better job not chasing pitches outside of the zone, and it appears his swing has been optimized to hit more line drives at the expense of being a pure pull hitter, which, from the stats, seems to be what Chicago was coaching him up to do.

The primary competition for Ramos to get the last roster spot is Jeremiah Jackson. Jackson has the benefit of having played very well for the Orioles last season, but Ramos has outperformed him so far in spring training. Ramos is also the more natural defender at third, which is where the Orioles are going to need the most help this season until Jordan Westburg gets back.

Jackson has minor league options, and Ramos doesn't. As a result, if Ramos continues to outperform Jackson the rest of the way, and the Orioles have the choice between optioning Jackson and keeping both players or keeping Jackson and risk losing Ramos, it may not be a very difficult choice.