SF Giants promote power-hitting outfielder, send Michael Conforto to the injured list

Recently, we were wondering whether the SF Giants still believed in Heliot Ramos. Whether they do or do not, the 23-year-old is back as he was called up on Friday with Michael Conforto landing on the injured list with a hamstring strain, per a team announcement.

SF Giants promote power-hitting outfielder, send Michael Conforto to the injured list

According to Maria Guardardo of MLB.Com, Conforto sustained the injury while catching a fly ball off the bat of J.T. Realmuto against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday. It is being labeled as a Grade 2 strain, which likely means that he will not return when he is eligible at the beginning of September.

After missing all of last season as he recovered from offseason should surgery, Conforto had become one of the few constants in the Giants lineup. The lineup has battled a lot of injuries throughout the year, but the veteran bat had appeared in 111 out of 127 games prior to Friday.

Players appearing in more than 150 games are becoming more and more rare, but playing in over 80 percent of the team's games thus far is a solid workload.

When he was out on the field, the left-handed bat registered a .251/.343/.405 line (106 OPS+) with 15 home runs, 55 RBI, and 55 runs in 426 plate appearances. This includes a solid 11.0 percent walk rate against a 22.8 percent strikeout rate. Conforto has proven to be a streaky hitter, but when he is hot, he can carry a lineup.

Heliot Ramos will be taking his place on the roster. Hopefully, Ramos will get an extended look for the first time in his career. The outfield prospect missed much of the first half of the season with an oblique strain. He returned to Sacramento on July 3. Since then, he has been on fire, hitting .337/.393/.683 with 18 extra-base hits, including seven home runs, in 112 plate appearances.

Ramos received a call up at the beginning of August and recorded an extra-base hit in three straight games. It felt like this would lead to him seeing the field more, but the playing time dried up before he was optioned back to Triple-A earlier this week. It was a short stint in Sacramento and Ramos returns to a San Francisco team that is going very young in the outfield with Wade Meckler and Luis Matos. It stands to reason that he should see an uptick in playing time.