MLB insider roasts Orioles over tiny trade for troublemaker Mets reliever

Even for a team as rich in prospect talent as the Baltimore Orioles are, pulling off early season trades for anything of real value can be tough. Every team still has a theoretical chance at a playoff berth this early on, and organizations just spent weeks rounding out their rosters with the guys that they wanted and are usually quite reluctant to give them up. More often than not, signing guys out of the pile of players cut from spring training is far more likely than actually getting a trade done the first couple months of the season.

Still, these sorts of trades do happen from time to time, although they are typically minor moves on the fringes of the roster. It is easier to convince teams that they don't really NEED their second worst reliever or bench bat than it is to try and steal away their No. 2 starter.

So, when the Orioles struck a minor trade with the Mets to add reliever Yohan Ramirez, it was met with a general "oh, neat" and everyone moved on to something else 10 seconds later. However, MLB insider Jon Heyman instead decided to take a pretty brutal shot at Ramirez, although he wasn't exactly wrong, either.

Orioles News: Baltimore trades for Yohan Ramirez despite his rough start to season

So why did one of the bigger national baseball writers out there decide to flame a reliever involved in a minor trade? Well, Heyman writes for the New York Post and has had a New York-centric focus for years now, so he is going to have some stronger feelings for things New York teams do. Second, Ramirez has been pretty bad to start the 2024 season, so Heyman isn't exactly wrong.

It is only three appearances so all the usual small sample size warnings apply here, but Ramirez thus far has put up a 11.81 ERA in 5.1 innings of work, including getting absolutely blasted by the Reds on April 6 and ultimately losing his spot in the bullpen. Out of minor league options, Ramirez is an interesting arm who misses bats and who can get ground balls, but he has always had issues with walks, and this year has looked even worse than usual in that department. He also didn't make a lot of friends when he threw behind Rhys Hoskins earlier this season and got ejected, but that he threw behind him instead of hitting him tells us a lot about where his command currently is.

Ultimately, the Orioles only gave up some cash to make the move, so there isn't much in the way of risk with this deal. If Ramirez can't throw strikes and/or keeps getting torched, Baltimore can move on with their lives. However, the Orioles are run by pretty smart people and they know they could be playing with fire by relying on Craig Kimbrel too much, so hopefully they see something that they can fix quickly and turn this deal into a complete heist.

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