Marlins Giving Agustín Ramírez First Base Reps

The Marlins just traded away Liam Hicks, who was splitting his time between catcher, first base and designated hitter. After that trade, they recalled catcher Agustín Ramírez to take his roster spot. It seems they also hope to have Ramírez gradually take over a similar role to the one Hicks had. President of baseball operations Peter Bendix told members of the media, including Christina De Nicola of MLB.com, that Ramírez will be getting work at first base. “We’re not taking away the catching,” Bendix said. “We’re trying to add versatility, really put him into a similar type of role that Liam held, except as a right-handed bat, maybe somebody that complements the rest of our lineup. Having the presence of Gus in addition to Joe Mack was another important fact we considered when trading away Liam. To be able to bring up Gus from Triple-A, slide him into a similar type of role as Liam. We need right-handed hitters. We know Gus is somebody that can hit. We know that the catching has gotten better.” Ramírez does have some professional first base experience, but it was a while back, in the minors, and a small sample. While a prospect with the Yankees, he got into one game in the Complex League in 2021, 19 Double-A games in 2023-24 and seven Triple-A games in 2024. The Marlins acquired him in the summer of 2024 as part of the Jazz Chisholm Jr. trade and have only had him behind the plate since then. His work behind the plate has never been highly praised but the Fish have continued to play him back there. He began this season at the big league level, sharing time with Hicks. Eventually, Mack forced his way into the equation, which bumped Ramírez to the minors. Mack has only been up a few months but has seemingly cemented himself as the catcher of the future. Through 69 games, he has 11 home runs and strong defensive grades. It’s a small sample but he was considered one of the top catching prospects in the league before being promoted. The Marlins felt good enough about Mack to consider Hicks expendable. They flipped him to the Rays for a package of three prospects, netting third baseman Brayden Taylor, shortstop Adrian Santana and right-hander Jacob Kisting. Now they will see if Ramírez can replace Hicks as a player who can occasionally catch while chipping in at first and in the DH slot. For the short term, there’s likely to be a drop-off for the Marlins. Hicks had a .282/.363/.432 line and 119 wRC+ this year before being traded. Ramírez has a .230/.293/.399 line and 89 wRC+ in 721 career plate appearances in the majors. He has a .254/.332/.427 line and 101 wRC+ in Triple-A this year. He is capable of more. In 2024, the year he was traded, he hit .267/.358/.487 in the minors for a 134 wRC+. If Ramírez can hit like that, or close to it, it could balance out the lineup. Hicks is a lefty and the Miami lineup already has a bunch of those, including Kyle Stowers, Owen Caissie, Griffin Conine, Jakob Marsee and Mack. Stowers was once an outfielder but has been the regular at first base for a few weeks now. He has a .208/.289/.330 line against lefties in his career and is at .169/.244/.286 this year, so platooning him certainly makes sense. Hicks was shielding him from some southpaws before the trade, which wasn’t ideal since he’s not great against lefties either. Mack has a .175/.233/.275 line without the platoon advantage. Platooning with Mack is already an option, in theory, though the poor glovework of Ramírez might lead to Mack staying in the lineup regularly anyway. Backup Brian Navarreto is a righty bat and a competent defender, so he makes more sense there. If Ramírez can play a decent first base, then he could get some playing time on the short side of a platoon with Stowers. That won’t be an option immediately, as the Marlins aren’t yet at the point of getting Ramírez into game action at first. Manager Clayton McCullough didn’t want to put any hard dates on when it will happen. “What that looks like and when he may play, we’re not sure,” McCullough said. “Or even if he will. We’ve come to that point now where we think it’ll be a good time to go explore that for him and for us. So he’s up for that, and we’ll see how the transition goes. There won’t be any type of an artificial timeline on if and when Gus gets into a game at first base. I think we’ll let it organically just happen, and until then, he is certainly someone who will help strengthen our bench on days he’s not starting as left-handed pitchers come in.” It’s an interesting course of action for the Marlins. In a best-case scenario, Ramírez would effectively replace Hicks while actually being a better fit with the rest of the guys on the roster. He still needs to take steps forward at the plate and become a viable defender at first, but if it works out, the major league roster is no worse off and the system is improved via the prospects in the Hicks deal. Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images