Neil Andrew Ramírez (born May 25, 1989) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the High Point Rockers of the

Atlantic League of Professional Baseball The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) is a professional independent baseball league based in the United States. It is an official MLB Partner League based in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. The Atlantic League's ...

. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, and Toronto Blue Jays.

Early life and amateur career

Ramírez attended and played baseball at

Kempsville High School Kempsville High School is a comprehensive public high school for students in grades 9–12 in the Virginia Beach City Public Schools system. In the western section of the city, the Kempsville High School covers approximately 12 sq. miles and dr ...

in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In high school, he was named the 2007

Gatorade Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries. The beverage was first develop ...

Virginia Baseball Player of the Year, made the East team roster at the 2006 Aflac All-American Classic and won a silver medal with the United States at the 2006

World Junior Baseball Championship The U-18 Baseball World Cup is the 18-and-under baseball world championship sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and its successor, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), and was first held in 1981 in the United S ...

in Cuba. ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

'' ranked him the 71st best draft prospect in 2007. Ramírez originally committed to play college baseball at Georgia Tech but was selected by the Texas Rangers in the first round of the

2007 Major League Baseball Draft The 2007 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players and was held on June 7, 2007 and June 8, 2007. The first day session of the draft included the f ...

and decided instead to sign a professional contract.

Professional career

Texas Rangers

Ramírez spent six years in the Rangers' farm system, playing for the Spokane Indians in 2008 and the Hickory Crawdads in 2009 and 2010. On August 17, he was promoted to Triple-A at

Round Rock Round Rock is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, in Williamson County, Texas, Williamson County (with a small part in Travis County, Texas, Travis County), which is a part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Its population is 119,468 as of ...

in place of

Eric Hurley Eric William Hurley (born September 17, 1985) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers in 2008. Career High school Hurley attended Samuel W. Wolfson High School in Jack ...

who was placed on the disabled list with viral infection. Prior to his promotion, on July 15, Ramírez was sent to rehab in Double-A Frisco, Texas, due to a sore shoulder. He was quoted as saying to MLB.com that the absence had not bothered him. On November 18, 2011, Ramírez was added to the Rangers'

40-man roster A Major League Baseball roster is a list of players who are allowed, by league agreement, to play for a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Each MLB team maintains two rosters: an active roster of players eligible to participate in an MLB game, and ...

Chicago Cubs

On August 23, 2013, Ramírez was traded to the

as the player to be named later in the July 2013 trade of Matt Garza. By June 9, 2014, through 14 innings pitched, he had struck out 23 players while having only .71

walks plus hits per inning pitched In baseball statistics, walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) is a sabermetric measurement of the number of baserunners a pitcher has allowed per inning pitched. WHIP is calculated by adding the number of walks and hits allowed and dividi ...

rating. On June 5, 2014, Ramírez earned his first career save in a victory over the New York Mets. Ramírez finished the year with a 1.44 ERA in 43.2 innings pitched

Milwaukee Brewers

On May 31, 2016, Ramírez was claimed off waivers by the

Minnesota Twins

On June 12, 2016, Ramírez was claimed off waivers by the

. He finished the year with a 6.00 ERA in 24 innings

San Francisco Giants

During the 2016 offseason, Ramírez signed a minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants. He was designated for assignment on April 30, 2017, to create room for

Bryan Morris Avery Bryan Morris (born March 28, 1987) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins and San Francisco Giants. Early life Morris was born in Woodbury, T ...

who had his contract purchased from Triple-A.

Toronto Blue Jays

On May 4, 2017, Ramírez was claimed off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays. He was designated for assignment on May 9 without having thrown a pitch for the Blue Jays. On May 14, Ramírez elected free agency after being outrighted to the minor leagues.

New York Mets

On May 16, 2017, the New York Mets signed Ramírez. On July 20, the Mets

designated Designation (from Latin ''designatio'') is the process of determining an incumbent's successor. A candidate that won an election for example, is the ''designated'' holder of the office the candidate has been elected to, up until the candidate's i ...

Ramírez for assignment.

Washington Nationals

On July 27, 2017, Ramírez signed a minor league deal with the Washington Nationals. In 14 games for the Triple–A Syracuse Chiefs, he registered a 6.14 ERA with 20 strikeouts in innings pitched. Ramírez elected free agency following the season on November 6.

Cleveland Indians

Ramírez signed a minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians on November 30, 2017. The Indians purchased Ramírez's contract on May 15, 2018. He finished the season with an ERA of 4.54 in innings, his most output since his rookie season in 2014. He began the 2019 season in the bullpen. He was designated for assignment by the Indians on May 18, 2019, after registering an ERA of 5.40 in innings. After clearing waivers, Ramírez accepted a minor league assignment to the

Columbus Clippers The Columbus Clippers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. They are located in Columbus, Ohio, and are named for speedy Merchant ship, mercha ...

, the Indians' Triple-A affiliate, on May 23, 2019. He was released on August 2, 2019.

Second stint with Blue Jays

On August 6, 2019, Ramírez signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was called up by the Blue Jays on August 11. On September 1, Ramirez was designated for assignment. He declared free agency on September 4, 2019.

Los Angeles Angels

On December 22, 2019, Ramírez signed a minor league deal with the Los Angeles Angels that included an invitation to Spring Training. He did not play in a game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ramírez was released by the Angels organization on September 1, 2020.

High Point Rockers

On April 28, 2023, after several years of inactivity, Ramírez signed with the High Point Rockers of the

Scouting report

According to ''Baseball America'', Ramírez is tall, weighs , and can throw his fastball at .

Personal

Ramírez married Tiffany in October 2014.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramírez, Neil 1989 births Living people Sportspeople from Virginia Beach, Virginia Baseball players from Virginia Major League Baseball pitchers Chicago Cubs players Milwaukee Brewers players Minnesota Twins players San Francisco Giants players New York Mets players Cleveland Indians players Toronto Blue Jays players Spokane Indians players Hickory Crawdads players Myrtle Beach Pelicans players Frisco RoughRiders players Surprise Saguaros players Arizona League Cubs players Round Rock Express players Tennessee Smokies players Iowa Cubs players Rochester Red Wings players Syracuse Chiefs players Columbus Clippers players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Dunedin Blue Jays players