The offseason is filled with taking low-risk, high-reward fliers on players that haven’t proven themselves and the San Francisco Giants are no exception.
Earlier this week, the Giants signed minor league pitcher Wilkin Ramos to a contract and assigned him to their Triple-A team in Sacramento, per his MiLB.com page.
Ramos has been a minor league pitcher for a long time. He has yet to make his MLB debut. At 25 years old, the clock is ticking on the right-hander, who has proven plenty at the minor league level — except that he can be a consistent Triple-A reliever. The Giants hope they’re getting a pitcher that is ready to take that final step and set himself up for a Major League debut.
Meet Wilkin Ramos
Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
Ramos has been kicking around minor league baseball since 2018. He was originally signed in 2017 by the Athletics as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic. He took his first paces with the Athletics in the Dominican Summer League in 2018, as he pitched in 14 games, started six, and went 3-3 with a 3.15 ERA with 38 strikeouts and 17 walks in 40 innings. That was a promising start.
It was promising enough to get the Pirates interested. In late 2018, the Athletics traded him to the Pirates, and he landed with the Gulf Coast League Pirates in 2019. He found the going a bit rough, as he went 0-2 in four starts with a 6.39 ERA. He struck out eight and walked 10 in 12.2 innings. Then came the COVID-19 shutdown of minor league baseball in 2020, which put him on the shelf for a season.
In 2021-22 he played in the Pirates system in 2021 with their FCL team and in 2022 with Class-A Bradenton. Combined he went 6-2 in 49 games, including six starts, with four saves. His combined ERA was under 4.00 and he had 94 strikeouts and 49 walks in 90 innings.
In late 2022 the Pirates put him on waivers, and the New York Mets picked him up and assigned him to their High-A affiliate in Brooklyn. He was later promoted to Double-A Binghamton. Combined he went 5-2 with a 2.50 ERA in 33 games, all in relief, as he struck out 67 and walked 37 in 57.2 innings. He had a strikeout rate of 10.5 per nine innings.
The 2024 season saw him reach Triple-A for the first time, and while he went 6-3 with a 3.00 ERA for the season, his splits were vastly different. At Binghamton he was 2-1 with a 1.65 ERA in 23 games with nine saves. With Triple-A Syracuse, he went 4-2 but had a 5.40 ERA in 18 games with two saves. He struck out 16 and walked 15 in 18.1 innings.
Ramos became a free agent and landed with the Pirates again and spent 2025 with Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis. He was incredible with Altoona, where he was 3-2 with a 1.45 ERA in 35 games, including seven saves, 53 strikeouts and 19 walks. But, at Indianapolis, he struggled, as he went 1-2 with a 6.60 ERA in 12 games, with 15 strikeouts and five walks in 15 innings.
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