Wilkin Ramos is off to a great start to his career with the Mets after being taken in the minor league phase of last year’s Rule 5 draft. He breezed through High-A and has a 2.61 ERA in Double-A since his promotion. He has an elite fastball and has had a successful breaking ball this year but he has some easy additions he could make to his pitch mix to improve walk numbers and increase strikeouts. The important piece is that his fastball—the hardest pitch to develop—is both fast enough and has good enough movement to be successful in the big leagues with more suitable accompanying off-speed pitches.

Wilkin Ramos, Photo by Bronson Harris of Binghamton Rumble Ponies

The Current State of Ramos

In 2023, Ramos has above-league-average strikeout rates at over 26% at both the High-A and Double-A levels, which is impressive as a sinker baller. His ground ball rates are well above-average, at around 65% for the season. (League average is typically around 40%.) His ERA was a hair below 3.00 in Brooklyn in 39.2 innings, and he’s kept up his pace of success in Binghamton despite an elevated walk rate. These walk numbers are the only concerning metric at this point—at 15.7% he is well below league average for free passes.

In his recent outings for the Rumble Ponies, Ramos has been sitting in the mid 90s with his two-seam fastball, which has elite sink. The sinker averages around 4 inches of vertical break with over 18 inches of horizontal movement to his arm side. This is coupled with a 6’5″ frame and some of the highest extension down the mound in baseball at well over seven feet.

These factors all contribute to the pitch being nothing short of a ground ball guarantee after it leaves his hand, so long as the hitters swing. He is currently using his fastball more than two-thirds of the time—not exactly making the hitter guess as to what pitch is coming at them. This makes it all the more impressive that the ground ball rate on the sinker is so high at over 70%.

His breaking ball is far less exciting than his fastball. He is a two-pitch pony and offers a curveball to compliment the fastball. The “curveball” is a sweeping breaking ball that also has depth—a slightly bigger version of a normal “slurve.” While the velocity of the pitch is acceptable at all levels of baseball, sitting around 80 mph, it isn’t an effective strikeout pitch or command-oriented secondary offering. Also, due to the large shape and 30-inch difference in horizontal movement on the curveball from his fastball, the hitter can see the difference in movement early, leading to easy takes if the pitch starts in the middle of the zone.

Some Recommended Suggestions

Lowering walk rate for Ramos is his “big rock” for player improvement. There are many ways to accomplish this task. Ramos can

  • Improve his skill of command on his fastball, working to increase his in zone rate
  • Adjust his pitch mix to include more off-speed pitches, keep the hitters guessing, and thus increase the number of chase swings out of the strike zone
  • Add another pitch and adjust the shape of his lone breaking ball to better compliment his fastball, leading to an increased strike percentage, increase in chase swings, and increase in swing-and-miss.

Having a 30-inch movement difference between a fastball and breaking ball can be effective, but if both pitches start in the middle of the zone, the hitter knows that both would end up outside the zone. Likely due in part to the movement difference and Ramos’ high usage of his sinker, the swing rate on the curveball is low. If he were to adjust the movement to a flatter sweeping slider shape and add in a cutter, he would stay on one vertical plane for his movement and have a bridge-pitch between his breaking ball and fastball. Many sinker ballers in the big leagues use this style of pitch mix to their advantage, including the Giants’ Camilo Doval and the Mets’ own rookie breakout, Grant Hartwig.

Ramos’ Future

At just 22 years of age, Ramos has a bright future and could be in Queens as soon as next year depending on how things shake out. Adding new pitches to a mix is usually one of the easier adjustments a pitcher can make and is likely the most correctable of any flaw. If Ramos can lower his walk rate and increase either his swing rate or usage of his breaking ball, he will be in a great position to continue his ascent up the ranks in the Mets farm system and on prospect rankings.