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Chicago White Sox call up 3B Bryan Ramos, their No. 4 prospect, from Double A: ‘He’s here to play’

lamond pope, chicago tribune
·4 min read

ST. LOUIS — Bryan Ramos got pulled after the sixth inning of Double-A Birmingham’s game Friday against the Rocket City Trash Pandas.

“They take me out and at the beginning I said, ‘What is this?’” Ramos said Saturday morning. “But you think about it and you know what was going on.”

The No. 4 prospect in the Chicago White Sox system according to MLB.com, Ramos found out why a little later, when he was informed he was being promoted to the major leagues.

“You don’t know until after the game,” he said. “They said in front of everybody and it was pretty cool. We won on a walk-off and after the game they gave the news. Everybody was fired up already and they jumped on me and gave congratulations. That was pretty fun.”

The 22-year-old third baseman joined the Sox before Saturday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

“Every kid dreams of it when they are little,” Ramos said. “To be here now is kind of everything. I’m so happy right now.”

While Ramos wasn’t in the starting lineup Saturday, manager Pedro Grifol said before the game “he’ll get a lot of playing time.”

“He’s here to play,” Grifol said. “It’s a good opportunity for him to experience this and a good opportunity for us to evaluate where he is in his development.”

Ramos entered in the ninth Saturday as a defensive replacement at third base.

He was involved in a play in the 10th when Alec Burleson hit a grounder to third. The Cardinals had runners on the corners and no outs, and Paul Goldschmidt — who was on third — headed for home. Ramos immediately made a low throw to the plate, and Goldschmidt raced back to third safely to load the bases.

Sox reliever John Brebbia struck out the next two batters. And after a 3-hour, 3-minute rain delay, Tanner Banks struck out Iván Herrera looking to complete a 6-5 Sox victory.

It was the conclusion of 24 hours Ramos never will forget.

The Sox signed the Cuban-born Ramos in 2018 when he was 16. He has a career .255/.342/.428 slash line with 67 doubles, 56 home runs, 230 RBIs, 160 walks and 230 runs in 391 games during four seasons in the Sox system.

“Extremely talented, extremely young,” Grifol said. “He’s got really all the tools to play at this level.”

Ramos was hitting .182 (16-for-88) at Birmingham this season with five doubles, two homers, 11 RBIs, seven walks and nine runs in 24 games. He had turned it on lately, hitting safely in his last eight games and going 11-for-33 (.333) with five doubles, two homers, seven RBIs and seven runs during the stretch.

“This sport is hard,” Ramos said. “I started the season kind of slow, but now I’m getting my rhythm. I just came to the ballpark with the same mentality.

“At some point I know I’m going to get back to my rhythm. You’ve just got to keep playing and keep doing your thing and let’s go.”

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The Sox placed third baseman Danny Mendick on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Thursday, with lower back tightness.

“It was weird, just kind of picked up an object the wrong way and that night felt a little tweak and the next morning my back was just in a tough spot,” Mendick said. “But I feel good today. Hopefully (the) next few days (I) start to feel better and get back out there.”

Mendick is slashing .256/.293/.410 with three doubles, one homer and three RBIs in 10 games since the Sox called him up from Triple-A Charlotte on April 22.

With Yoán Moncada on the IL, Mendick had been filling in at third. Braden Shewmake started there Saturday.

Whether Ramos stays beyond Mendick’s absence remains to be seen.

“He’s going to have eight to 10 days to perform,” Grifol said. “And at that time, evaluations will be made and we’ll see where he’s at and go from there.”