2024 Cleveland Guardians Prospect Scouting Report: #27 INF Rafael Ramirez Jr.

Ramirez Jr. has good baseball bloodlines and a potentially good ceiling as a middle-infield prospect

Justin Lada

Feb 29, 2024

Rafael Ramirez Jr. Bio

Age (2024 season): 18
Acquired: International Free Agent (2022)
2023 Level: Arizona Rookie League
Height: 6’0
Weight: 159
Bats: Left
Throws: Right

Rafael Ramirez Jr. 2023 Stats

PA: 190
AVG/OBP/SLG: .250/.453/.426
2B: 6
HR: 4
SB: 6/8
K%/BB%: 28.4%/26.3%

Rafael Ramirez Jr. 2024 Scouting Grades

Hit: 45
Power: 50
Speed: 55
Defense: 50
Arm: 55
Overall: 40
Risk: Extreme
ETA: 2027

Build & Background

Medium built-infielder with a slender, athletic frame. Long in the legs and high waisted for a 6’0 tall infielder. Limited room for physical projection in frame to stay up the middle. Upright in the box as a hitter, has a moderate leg kick as his timing mechanism. Shows some good rotational, sometimes explosive actions in swing and movement. Ramirez is the son of former MLB All-Star SS Rafael Ramirez (Braves/Astros). He signed with Cleveland as a 2022 international free agent out of the Dominican Republic for $800,000.

What Ramirez Jr. Does Well

Given Ramirez Jr. has yet to move out of the complex leagues yet, my looks are limited to video so far. Ramirez Jr. might end up being a more bat-first middle infield type. He’s got a nice, lofty type of swing with some explosion and rotation. Stands on the plate and good at pulling his hands inside. Can hit the ball in the air and pull it, and there’s the frame for some decent pop here. There’s good contact ability here and what appears to be a good idea of the strike zone for his age and level so far. Ramirez isn’t bad with the glove. There’s enough arm for the left side of the infield.

Where Ramirez Jr. Needs to Improve

Hard to say without seeing full games, but he did run a higher strikeout rate in the complex league than you’d like to see, especially for a prospect lauded with contact skills. Perhaps there’s some passtvity there with his high walk rate, but complex league pitching is very, very raw. His swing does give some pause about covering the outer half of the plate and on breaking stuff, especially against left handers. He did have a drastic platoon split against LHP. There’s some concern Ramirez Jr. could outgrow shortstop and a move off there would put more pressure on his bat.

Key Stats

Firsts, Ramirez Jr. had a 45% fly ball rate in 2023, and a pull rate 45.2% to match. That’s a good sign for his batted ball profile so far. His line vs. RHP was .265/.480/.441 and .206/.364/.382 vs. LHP, but we won’t take complex league stats too seriously. Just something to note going forward.

Intangibles

Ramirez Jr. has baseball bloodlines with his dad being a former All-Star SS and he is lauded for his work ethic and character overall.

Future

Ramirez Jr. is still quite young, and will play most of his 2024 season at age 18, likely at Low-A Lynchburg. That’s an exciting level to see him at for his age. A lot of this ranking is based on projection/upside because I haven’t seen him in person or full games, But he has good size, a nice batted ball profile, a good arm, and baseball blood lines. He might struggle in his first non-complex exposure, so temper expectations. A long way to climb here, but there’s an exciting ceiling here, but plenty of risk.

Role

40 - Possible high-ceiling/high risk middle infielder