San Francisco Giants Former Top Prospect Given Chance With Slugger on IL

The San Francisco Giants are hoping that one of their former top prospects can give their team a lift after they placed their star slugger on the injured list.

Aug 25, 2023; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos (12) / Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

It was a busy offseason for the San Francisco Giants as they felt something needed to be done to compete with their division rival Los Angeles Dodgers, who landed the biggest free agent maybe in baseball history alongside an elite international pitcher, and the Arizona Diamondbacks coming off a trip to the World Series.

Ultimately, they landed some high-profile players that overhauled their roster.

Korean star Jung Hoo Lee, elite third baseman Matt Chapman, slugger Jorge Soler, and the reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell gave the Giants a major boost on paper.

But, games aren't played on paper and, so far, it has been a struggle for San Francisco.

Entering Thursday, they sit with a 17-21 record and are 8.5 games out of first place in the NL West and two back of the Wild Card.

Much of their issues have come from lack of offense as they rank 23rd in runs scored and around the middle of the pack for team slash line metrics.

The Giants have not gotten much production from Soler after signing him to a three-year, $42 million deal. He sits with a .202/.294/.361 slash line with just five homers and eight RBI through 34 games.

Now, he'll be out of their lineup for a bit as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reported they placed the slugger on the 10-day injured list with a right shoulder strain. In a corresponding move, they called up former top prospect, Heliot Ramos, from Triple-A.

Ramos was the organization's 19th overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft and was immediately considered their No. 1 prospect the following year. That changed in 2019 when Joey Bart took that designation from him, but he stayed inside their top three from then until 2021.

The outfielder made his Major League debut in 2022, but it's been a struggle for him at this level during his limited opportunities.

The 24-year-old was 12-76 in his 34 career games, hitting only one home run, just two RBI, and striking out 26 times.

However, this is a new opportunity for him after having a great showing early on at Triple-A.

In Ramos' first game with San Francisco this season, he went 1-4 and drove in a run.

Hopefully this chance allows him to settle in and become the player that he was projected to be during his earlier days in the minors.

The Giants are certainly hoping that's the case as they continue to search for offensive output from anywhere in their lineup.