What do the SF Giants do with Heliot Ramos on defense?

SF Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos had another defensive miscue in Wednesday's 11-1 loss to the San Diego Padres. This has become too common of an occurrence, and the Giants might soon reach a point where they cannot have him in the outfield anymore, so what do they do?

What do the SF Giants do with Heliot Ramos on defense?

The miscue occurred in a seven-run second inning by the Padres. Things had unraveled well before Ramos' play. Manny Machado doubled to left field, but an errant throw from Ramos led to Fernando Tatis Jr. scoring.

As Bob Melvin explained after the game, the throw by Ramos was due to the cutoff guys being out of position. Why were they even out of position in the first place? That is a conversation for a different day.

Nevertheless, this was yet another miscue, deserved or not, by Ramos on defense. For a team whose identity is fixated on pitching and defense, the latter is taking a hit when Ramos is out in the field.

Left field tends to be a position where teams can hide a below-average defender, and it can work. However, Ramos' defense is surprisingly poor for a player who came up through the system as a center fielder.

Ramos did not have good defensive instincts in the minors, but made up for it with foot speed. That foot speed is no longer there.

Regardless of the metric you consume, Ramos' defense ranks near the bottom among all left fielders. He has recorded -8 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), -9 Outs Above Average (OAA), and -10 Fielding Run Value (FRV). He is last in both OAA and FRV, whereas Jose Altuve (-9 DRS) has been slightly worse based on DRS.

Ramos' defense and baserunning are why his overall value is relatively low this year. He is slashing .268/.342/.406 (113 wRC+) with 14 home runs, 51 RBI, and 62 runs in 524 plate appearances. He hits enough that he needs to be in the lineup every day. However, he has only put up 1.1 fWAR. That is the same number that Mike Yastrzemski put up with the Giants, and it is the type of value that you normally associate with a fringe starting outfielder.

The 25-year-old outfielder does not hit enough to be a full-time DH, and is probably too young for that role anyway. In the near future, the Giants are likely going to be having Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge split time at DH, so there just may not even be playing time at that spot.

Ramos' rough defense does not give the Giants much flexibility or options. What do they do? They will likely continue to use him in the outfield, but if the defense remains an issue, they will need to address it sooner rather than later. Perhaps as soon as 2026.

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