San Francisco Giants Release Reliever Ramon Ramirez, Recall Noonan

Sep 18, 2011; Denver, CO, USA; San Francisco Giants relief pitcher

(52) pitches during the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. The San Francisco Giants defeated the Colorado Rockies by a score of 12-5. Mandatory Credit: Andrew B. Fielding-USA TODAY Sports

In a bit of a shocking move, the San Francisco Giants released reliever Ramon Ramirez this morning – though, if his performance was any indication, it wasn’t all that shocking.

After being a key part of the Giants’ dominate 2010 World Series Champion bullpen, Ramon was sent to New York along with Andres Torres in exchange for Angel Pagan, before both Torres and Ramirez returned to the Bay this offseason as free agents. A woeful 2011 in New York and a rough Spring for Ramirez was his undoing, especially with reliever Chad Gaudin performing at a much better pace.

The Giants informed Ramirez they’d love to keep him in Fresno, if he would be so inclined, but given an always shaky market on relief arms (and injuries) one would expect Ramirez to find a Major League roster spot, someplace.

In addition to Ramirez’ release, the Giants also let go of Wilson Valdez, recalling infielder Nick Noonan – though it’s unlikely he’d find his way to the big boy roster as camp breaks in a week plus, despite the Giants’ pressing need for some infield insurance.

According to CSN’s Andrew Baggarly, the Giants continue to search the waiver wire looking for some insurance but just haven’t found the right body yet:

"The Giants continue to scan the outside world for other infielders and Evans described a “constant flow” of names on the waiver wire.“Anything is possible, but nothing has percolated to the top of the at list, other than our internal options,” Evans said."