Cubs (Peterson) vs Cardinals (TBD): 7/27/26, 6:45pm

[Jason Ross]

6 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

I didn't mean he would come out and be a 120 bat but i think from a profile standpoint they share similarities that could lend well to Pedro being pretty good in LF. I would expect he would post a higher BA but lower slug, maybe similar OBP. They are curated PA and he got lucky with some weak doubles, but I think his plate discipline will only get better and he has a track record of being really good in that respect. The batted ball numbers are pretty good. 

 

Personally there's only a couple potentially available SP I would trade him for. 

I like Ramirez, but there are a bunch of pitchers I'd happily move him for. He doesn't really have a home with the Cubs that is a good fit. For example, I think you're being super kind to him suggesting an Ian Happ comp at any level. A 120 wRC+, which is what Happ has been consistently, would basically be the best hitting 2b in baseball. I don't look at Pedro Ramirez and go "yeah, that guy is going to be the best hitting 2b in baseball" as a comparison right now. I think a fair expectation is in that 100-105 wRC+ range which still gets him above the 2b average. Which is also just ever so slightly better than LF league wide (99 wRC+ this year) but it's not so much better that you draw a circle around him and say "there's only like 3 guys I'm trading him for". 

Between he, and Shaw, one of them has to move, IMO, in a perfect world. You cannot walk into next year with a bunch of 2b bats in the LF/RF spots. And between the two of them, I think if you're valuing one over the other at a pretty high level, I think you're probably being unfair to the other one. You can like one thing about Shaw or Ramirez over the other, but on paper, they look pretty equal value wise. Especially for a team in which "another infielder" is probably the last thing the MLB side of things needs.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Throw as much money as possible at Skubal and you can probably convince Happ or Seiya to take a discount.

[We Got The Whole 9]

33 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I like Ramirez, but there are a bunch of pitchers I'd happily move him for. He doesn't really have a home with the Cubs that is a good fit. For example, I think you're being super kind to him suggesting an Ian Happ comp at any level. A 120 wRC+, which is what Happ has been consistently, would basically be the best hitting 2b in baseball. I don't look at Pedro Ramirez and go "yeah, that guy is going to be the best hitting 2b in baseball" as a comparison right now. I think a fair expectation is in that 100-105 wRC+ range which still gets him above the 2b average. Which is also just ever so slightly better than LF league wide (99 wRC+ this year) but it's not so much better that you draw a circle around him and say "there's only like 3 guys I'm trading him for". 

Between he, and Shaw, one of them has to move, IMO, in a perfect world. You cannot walk into next year with a bunch of 2b bats in the LF/RF spots. And between the two of them, I think if you're valuing one over the other at a pretty high level, I think you're probably being unfair to the other one. You can like one thing about Shaw or Ramirez over the other, but on paper, they look pretty equal value wise. Especially for a team in which "another infielder" is probably the last thing the MLB side of things needs.

We've seen quite a bit of Shaw and that contact quality is just frightening. If they are viewed equally across suitors then im moving him before Ramirez. Pedro is also younger with a little bit more team control. I think he's a decent approximation of everything Happ brings to the table. He doesn't need to be a 120 bat IMO. You never know how the IF to OF conversion is going to go until it takes place but he's plenty athletic enough; bsr could offset some of the off and def value Happ brings. 

 

A 110 bat is certainly possible. There's currently 73 qualified hitters at 110 and about 20% of them are on pace for about 10-15 HR. OBP goes a long way. I digress.

[Jason Ross]

10 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

We've seen quite a bit of Shaw and that contact quality is just frightening. If they are viewed equally across suitors then im moving him before Ramirez. Pedro is also younger with a little bit more team control. I think he's a decent approximation of everything Happ brings to the table. He doesn't need to be a 120 bat IMO. You never know how the IF to OF conversion is going to go until it takes place but he's plenty athletic enough; bsr could offset some of the off and def value Happ brings. 

 

A 110 bat is certainly possible. There's currently 73 qualified hitters at 110 and about 20% of them are on pace for about 10-15 HR. OBP goes a long way. I digress.

If Ramirez isn't a 120 wRC+ bat, than he isn't an Ian Happ comparison, though. So we're either moving the goalposts, underselling how good Ian Happ has been, or overvaluing Pedro Ramirez. 

If you want something a bit more realistic to what I think Ramirez is right now? It's whatever Brian Rocchio is putting up. A 106 wRC+, a K% around 15% and a walk rate around 7%. He's hit nine home runs on the year. That's roughly where Pedro was for much of his MilB career. His xwOBA on the year is .297 compared to Pedro's .299. Maybe you move a few things around, but that's about a line I think I'd expect for Pedro Ramirez, especially at age-23 when you don't curate the PA's so much, the league adjusts and he settles in.

But that 106 wRC+ puts you in the 20's when you look at LF'ers with 150 PA's at the position. And that's where the issue is for me. Whatever defense you think you're gaining in LF, you're throwing away with the bat. And I don't think that's the worst case scenario, but that isn't worth prospect hugging him this year. I can see that being servicable, especially with a strong bench, so it isn't so much "it can't happen" only "let's not overpromise" or in this case, expect too much. It's alright, but not something you can't replicate.

A lot of this feels like you're taking a square peg and putting it in a round hole. It's a lot of "well maybe if he does this" or "maybe that". But that's the same argument for Matt Shaw. Shaw's xwOBA last year? .302. What's he doing this year? Putting up glove and base running value to offset his bat in the OF. That's what I meant when I said they're equal value. You can personally just like one over the other, but when we get to brass tax, they're pretty similar. 

And a good reminder, Shaw hit better than Pedro Ramirez at Triple-A before he came up. He had a 144 wRC+ in Iowa. He walked more than Ramirez. And had a longer history of power hitting. 

I just think when you boil it down, it's 6 in one hand, half a dozen in the other.