2021 Angels Player Review: Noé Ramirez

From the time he was acquired in late 2017 all the way through the 2020 season, Noé Ramirez quietly existed as a pretty solid contributor to an Angels bullpen that quite notably lacked those during that time.

The Southern California native and Cal State Fullerton product never made his way up to a high leverage role during his initial stint in Anaheim, but he performed well enough to hang around the team for a while, pitching to a 4.13 ERA and an above average 107 ERA+ during his three plus years with the Halos. Last offseason, though, the Angels decided to part ways with Ramirez, shipping him and prospect Leo Rivas to the Reds in a trade that landed them eventual closer Raisel Iglesias in what is still the best move of Perry Minasian’s short tenure as general manager.

Ramirez’s time in Cincinnati would not last very long, as a poor showing in Spring Training where he gave up six earned runs in six innings led to him being cut before he even played in a regular season game for his new team. The Angels scooped him back up off of free agency three days after his release, bringing him back to the organization just over three months after he was originally traded away.

Ramirez started the season at the Halos’ alternate training site and was assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake once the minor league season kicked off. He was brought up to the Angels shortly after this, though, joining the team on May 11 to replace the injured Junior Guerra on the active roster. His first game in the majors came on the same day, where gave up a hit and a walk but got out of the eighth inning unscathed in a mop-up role against the Astros. His next and final outing with the Angels came while trailing 7-0 during a game against the Red Sox four days later, and it saw him give up a pair of earned runs in three innings of work.

After these two outings, the Angels designated Ramirez for assignment in order to make room for the newly acquired Hunter Strickland, and he elected free agency a few days later. He would go on to sign with the Diamondbacks shortly after this, where he then went on to have a pretty successful season overall, posting a 2.76 ERA in 36 games after re-emerging in the majors once again in mid-June.

2021 Statistics

3.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 5.40 ERA in two relief appearances with the Angels

2.76 ERA in 32.2 innings across 36 games with the Diamondbacks

Best Performance of the Year

There aren’t many performances to choose from given Ramirez’s very brief stint with the Angels, so the pick here would have to be his first game of the season against the Astros. He did give up two baserunners in that one, but he did his job by getting out of his inning with no damage and keeping the score somewhat close at 5-1 after Alex Claudio’s nightmare outing.

Roster Status

Ramirez is still under contract with the Diamondbacks for the next two seasons, so unless Arizona decides to give him the boot sometime in that time frame, it’s likely that we’ve seen the last of him with the Halos. Because of his status as the guy that helped bring one of the best closers in baseball to Anaheim for the foreseeable future, though, it’s likely that Angels fans will look back fondly on his tenure with the team.