Grading Yankees' Heliot Ramos Trade After One Month (A Brutal First Impression)

With just an hour before the MLB trade deadline on August 3, the New York Yankees swung a deal for outfielder Heliot Ramos from the San Francisco Giants.

At the time, Aaron Judge was still over a month away from being activated from the IL, and Cody Bellinger was also on the shelf. So getting an outfielder was a need for the Yankees at the moment, preferably a right-handed bat who excelled at hitting left-handed pitching.

Ramos fit that bill despite pedestrian overall numbers on the season and defensive concerns. Even when key players would return from injury, the Yankees figured to use the 27-year-old as a platoon bat to supplant Trent Grisham or Spencer Jones; in the meantime, he was expected to provide a jolt to New York's struggling lineup, alongside another trade acquisition in Luis Garcia Jr.

Heliot Ramos is the first right-handed hitter in MLB history to hit a home run into McCovey Cove!

(h/t @BNightengale) pic.twitter.com/vTeuYMhGYf
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) September 15, 2024

But while Garcia has provided that jolt, Ramos only compounded the lineup's struggles.

Heliot Ramos' terrible start with the Yankees

In 24 games and 83 plate appearances since being acquired, Ramos is slashing just .145/.289/.261 with five doubles, one home run, four RBI, a 61 wRC+ and -0.5 fWAR. Outside of a big three-run homer against the Boston Red Sox on August 30, his offense has been a disaster.

Heliot Ramos' first home run as a member of the @Yankees comes in a HUGE spot 😤 pic.twitter.com/oVpZDsjkql
— MLB (@MLB) August 30, 2026

It is worth mentioning that Ramos' plate discipline has improved since joining the Yankees, already drawing 10 walks after taking just 16 free passes in 74 games with San Francisco. The expected stats are also noticeably better due to Ramos consistently generating hard contact; his xBA is .228, his xSLG is .391, and his xwOBA is .334 (as opposed to his .258 wOBA). This indicates that Ramos has run into a few unlucky outs despite increasing his line-drive and fly-ball rates and lowering his ground ball rate compared to his time with the Giants.

However, expected stats mean very little at this point in the season, when every game matters in the Yankees' pursuit of the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL East crown. The bottom line is that Ramos is not producing at all, and his still-brutal strikeout rate (28.9%) in pinstripes adds more unproductive at-bats to his ledger.

Heliot Ramos hits a 112.2 MPH liner for a double play

It's the eighth time in his career he's hit the ball 112+ MPH. The other seven results were double, home run, double, single, single, line out and double pic.twitter.com/0Gcbc6uVsn
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 3, 2026

On top of the terrible offensive start, Ramos is as much of a defensive liability as he was before. In just 136.0 innings in left field, the 27-year-old is already worth -3 Fielding Runs with -3 OAA and DRS. Most fans have held their breath when a ball is hit in Ramos' direction due to his late jumps and poor routes, even on what should be routine plays. Compare that to Bellinger, who consistently makes plays that Ramos can't.

Where does Ramos fit moving forward?

This awful first impression is bound to hurt Ramos' playing time down the stretch. In addition to Bellinger being activated on August 23, Judge is officially set to return to the Yankees' lineup tonight. Even if Judge is eased into his regular role, both he and Bellinger will be everyday players moving forward.

This leaves Ramos competing with Spencer Jones (and maybe Jasson Dominguez) for that last spot in the outfield, but Jones has the clear advantage over him right now. Not only is Jones hitting .340 with a 1.031 OPS since August 20, but the young Yankee outfielder has put up truly impressive reverse splits with a .415 batting average and .715 slugging percentage against southpaws. Ramos' role is supposed to be a slugger against lefties, yet he's being far outperformed in this area by a left-handed batter.

Despite the uncertain role moving forward, the Yankees have Ramos for the long haul as he won't hit free agency until after the 2029 season. Those years of control were why the Yankees gave up a hefty package for him - New York sent No. 5 prospect Henry Lalane and No. 13 prospect Kaeden Kent to San Francisco to get Ramos.

As a result, the Yankees traded two top-15 prospects for an outfielder who hasn't hit and defends poorly, and figure to use him in a platoon role despite having three more years of club control. It may be premature to fully judge a trade after just one month, but the Ramos trade is looking like a massive misfire by Brian Cashman so far.

Grade: F

Get Yankees On SI straight to your inbox: sign up for our free newsletter here.

Add us as a preferred source on Google