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Cleveland Indians outfielder Harold Ramirez is a fantasy baseball sleeper and undervalued draft target for the 2021 season. Kipp Heisterman explains why Ramirez could provide value at OF this year.
The Cleveland Indians finished the shortened 2020 season 10 games above .500 and earned a Wild Card spot out of the A.L. Central. They had this success despite having one of the worst-performing outfields in all of baseball. In 2021, they should be much better in the outfield with a hopeful rebound from Oscar Mercado and the signing of Eddie Rosario. Who will man the other outfield position, though?
Enter Harold Ramirez. The Tribe just claimed Ramirez off waivers and he makes for a very intriguing stash in fantasy leagues for 2021.
While there is no guarantee Ramirez wins a starting job out of camp, he will almost certainly get the opportunity to play out of the gate as the Indians are very soft at the position. Let's take a look at Ramirez's profile and discuss why he could provide late-round value as a sleeper in 2021.
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The Ramirez Bros?
The Indians have been looking for outfield help for some time now and Ramirez could be a very serviceable piece for them heading into 2021. You would not know this from his 2020 stats, however, as he only managed to play in three games thanks to testing positive for Covid-19 and then injuring his hamstring immediately following his activation from the Covid list. In all, it was a very dismal season for Ramirez, which is likely why he fell as far down the waiver claim list as he did. That being said, we can certainly draw some positives from his 2019 stats that may give us a glimpse of what to expect in 2021.
In 2019, Harold Ramirez posted a decent slash line of .276/.312/.416 with 11 HR, 50 RBI, 54 R, and two SB across 421 AB. The counting stats likely would have been much higher had he played in an offense that was at least half-way decent, but alas, he played in a Marlins lineup that ranked second-to-last in MLB in terms of runs scored. The stolen bases are also surprisingly low as he posted a sprint speed which ranked him in the top eight percent of the league. This number should increase dramatically in 2021 as the Indians ranked sixth and 15th in terms of stolen bases in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
In 2019, Ramirez also posted a solid xBA of .272, which ranked him in the top third of the league as well as a K rate of just 20.4%, which ranked him in the top 40% of the league. While the numbers may not pop off the page, it was his first year in the big leagues and future progression could certainly be expected. One area where we would certainly like to see improvement, however, is with his power metrics. He struggled with exit velocity (88.9%) and hard-hit rate (34.7%), but it is important to keep in mind that power is not his strong suit as he is a guy that only hit 34 bombs across parts of seven seasons in the minors. He did, however, manage to hit .303 across those seven seasons, which will translate to counting stats if given an opportunity in this Indians' lineup.
2021 Outlook
Currently, Harold Ramirez is a large unknown. The Indians just claimed him off waivers and no one really knows what exactly his role will be on the team. What we do know is that the Indians are desperate for outfield help and are exploring all avenues in order to acquire it. It would not surprise me at all to see Ramirez break camp with the Tribe as either a platoon outfielder or even a starter on Opening Day.
He currently has an ADP that is non-existent, which means fantasy players can choose to add him to the top of their watch list once their drafts are complete. If he has a strong spring camp, however, it might be wise to add him to your bench as a wait-and-see player to begin the season. If he falters out of the gate, you would not have invested much in him in the first place.
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