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The San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees are moving forward on a trade involving Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos, a league source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been completed told The Athletic.
The potential return to the Giants is not yet known.
Ramos, who turns 27 in September, was the Giants’ first-round pick in 2017 (19th overall), and won’t be a free agent until 2030, with his first year of arbitration only beginning next season.
Ramos ended up breaking a pair of long-standing curses for the Giants: He became the first homegrown outfielder to play in an All-Star Game since Chili Davis in 1986, and he was the first left fielder to start in back-to-back Opening Days since Barry Bonds in 2006 and 2007.
What Ramos does right is what makes him valuable to the Yankees. He can hit lefties reliably, even if he’s not the all-time lefty-masher that his 2024 season suggested he could be. He has plenty of power — he was the first and only right-handed hitter to hit a home run into McCovey Cove on the fly — but he generates it with a swing that doesn’t get the ball in the air as often as other sluggers. It might set limits on his power, or it might be something that an adventurous organization wants to tinker with. Ramos is under team control through the 2029 season, so there will be time to find out.
What limits Ramos, however, is what makes him expendable to the Giants. He’s an all-time Dr. Strangeglove in the outfield, with subtle notes of both Glenallen Hill and Raul Ibañez, and he never got fully get comfortable against right-handed pitching, which made him more of a platoon player. That’s a consideration for a team like the Giants as he starts to enter his arbitration years, especially when they have Victor Bericoto (soon to return from the IL) emerging with a similar profile. Ramos’ services (and owner-friendly contract) are in enough demand to make them an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Still, it will be a huge hit for the Giants and their fans to lose the gregarious Ramos, who was as popular in the clubhouse (and press box) as he was in the bleachers. It took a long time for the Giants to develop an outfielder at all, and they’re unlikely to develop another one quite like him again.
This story will be updated.
