Pedro Ramírez figured he would try to capitalize on a Thursday day game with the Iowa Cubs by going to bed early.
The Chicago Cubs Triple-A affiliate had a night game Friday, and the infielder wanted the extra time to rest about a month into the grueling minor-league season. Early into his slumber, though, his phone rang and Iowa manager Marty Pevey was on the other end.
Ramírez, half-awake, was confused as to why Pevey wanted to speak with him. Then, when Pevey spoke, Ramírez had to make sure he wasn’t still sleeping.
“He said, ‘Hey, Pedro, I need to tell you something,’” the 22-year-old Ramírez told the Tribune. “’You’re going to the big leagues.’”
This couldn’t be real, Ramírez thought. He surely still had to be sleeping. Sure, he had nine home runs with Iowa and a .312 average and .942 OPS in his first taste of the highest level of the minor leagues, but he thought a call to the majors was months away.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Ramírez said. “I was focused on improving on what I was doing at Triple A. I wasn’t thinking about, ‘Oh, they’re going to call me up’, or ‘Oh, they have to call me up.’ I was just focused on my work.”
Sure enough, it wasn’t a dream. The Cubs had called him up to take the place of utilityman Matt Shaw, who had landed on the 10-day injured list with mid-back tightness.
“I was emotional, even started crying and asked (Pevey) if he was serious,” Ramírez recalled. “He said, ‘Yes, I don’t play with that.’”
Ramírez had an impressive spring training in big-league camp, collecting 11 hits in 15 games and posting a 1.065 OPS in Cactus League play. He is the Cubs’ No. 2 prospect and No. 85 in baseball, according to MLB.com.
“This is a young player that still has some space to grow and really improve his game,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said before Friday’s series opener against the Houston Astros. “We saw it in spring training, maybe a glimpse of a player that was ready to have a big season, and he’s off to a great start.”
Friday was a special day for Ramírez, who began playing as a 4-year-old in his hometown of Temblador, Venezuela, in the eastern part of the baseball-mad country and dreamed of being a big-leaguer.
“I had one goal, which was to help move my family forward,” Ramírez said. “I would tell myself that I could achieve the dream that I have wanted since I was a kid, which is to be a professional baseball player.”
Unlike many of his countrymen who had family show them how to play the game, Ramírez was raised in a household that wasn’t obsessed with the sport — in fact, none of his immediate family members played.
But Niurka Escobar, his stay-at-home mother, helped nurture his love for the game.
“She took me to games and supported me,” Ramírez said.
Ramírez, who had been told to keep the news quiet, knew he had to tell his mom. So he started a video call with her and shared the news.
“She turned red and started to cry,” Ramírez said. “I didn’t want to tell her so soon because I had to wait a bit, but I couldn’t contain it. I had to tell her.”
But Ramírez isn’t expected to inject life into a scuffling Cubs offense. Entering the Astros series, the Cubs ranked 25th in May in OPS (.656) and 27th in average (.210) — and things didn’t get better in the first two games with a combined seven hits in 4-2 and 3-0 losses.
Shaw was hitting .045 in May before his IL stint, and four other Cubs were hitting below .200 entering the weekend: Pete Crow-Armstrong (.197), Ian Happ (.188), Dansby Swanson (.156) and Moisés Ballesteros (.075).
The Cubs needed to bring up someone to replace Shaw, who began experiencing discomfort in his back Tuesday. Ramírez was already on the 40-man roster, and his versatility — he has started five games in left field for Iowa this season — made him a natural replacement for Shaw. Counsell can deploy Ramírez like he did Shaw: against a left-hander in place of one of his left-handed-hitting starters or as a pinch hitter or defensive replacement for matchups.
After not playing in Friday’s series opener, Ramírez made his big-league debut Saturday, pinch hitting in the eighth inning and grounding out to second.
Counsell and the Cubs believe this time will be beneficial for Ramírez, even if they figure his first taste of the major leagues might be short.
“It’s not going to be a big playing role,” Counsell said. “But it’s also good for him to get exposure to the major leagues, get exposure to the group, get exposure to the schedule, so that if we run into a situation where it is a lot of playing time, that he doesn’t have to go through it for the first time while playing. There could be a start here or there, and we’ll take that kind of day to day.”
