The Oakland A’s swept the Blue Jays in four games this weekend, and now they’ll leave town with an extra prize. The A’s claimed pitcher Carlos Ramirez off waivers from Toronto on Sunday, the team announced.
Ramirez signed with the Jays out of the Dominican Republic in 2009, but he did so as an outfielder. However, after making little progress at the plate, he switched to pitching in mid-2014 at age 23. After a couple seasons in the lower minors, he opened 2017 in Double-A and caught fire — in 25 relief appearances at AA/AAA (37u2154 ip) he didn’t allow a single earned run, riding that wave all the way up to a September call-up for his MLB debut (which also went well).