AJ Ramos to share in relief with Mets, perhaps a home with Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton as well
AJ Ramos at Mets spring training on Feb. 12, 2018 in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Credit: Newsday / Alejandra Villa
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — If you think about it, it’s only fair. Giancarlo Stanton is making $25 million with the Yankees this year. AJ Ramos is making $9.225 million with the Mets.
If they move in together, of course Stanton should pay for the groceries.
Ramos buys that. “He’s paying,” he said before pausing. “Nah, I’m just messing.”
It looks as though it’ll take more than a little crosstown rivalry to upend one of the greatest bromances in baseball. Mets reliever Ramos said Monday that he and Stanton, his former Marlins teammate, are looking to become roommates now that they both find themselves in New York. “We’re still looking at places,” Ramos said Monday as Mets pitchers and catchers reported at First Data Field.
Stanton, Ramos said, should have a grand old time hitting at Yankee Stadium, but all bets are off when the two face off in the regular season. “Definitely for the Subway Series, I might mess up his sleep a little bit, stuff like that,’’ Ramos said. “We’re still looking. Nothing set in stone just yet.”
As for, you know, actual baseball updates, Ramos said he’s fully prepared for Mickey Callaway’s bullpen changes. Callaway said he won’t have a set closer this year and will depend on matchups to determine who will pitch.
“What my job is, when my name is called, is to go out there and do the work and put some zeros up,” Ramos said. “I don’t worry about that too much because he said that in the offseason, so you can prepare for it. If you come into camp not ready for that, that’s on you. It would be another thing if he said we were going to have defined roles and then he switched it up. He gave us a heads-up and it’s a good way to prepare for it. There’s no excuses now.”
It appears he, Anthony Swarzak, Jerry Blevins and Jeurys Familia all can expect to pitch the ninth at some point.
“I’ve closed and I’ve pitched in between, so that just shows that I can do different things,” Ramos said. “There’s no set role for me. I’m just a pitcher. I pitch. It shows my versatility.”
As for Stanton, Ramos is very ready to see his old buddy light up Yankee Stadium. Just not against his team.
“He can get jammed and hit a ball out there,” he said. “That park is very small. That’s a plus for him. He’s going from Miami, where he had to square one up to get one, up to New York, where you can basically burp a ball out.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
