Ramos has a few tricks up sleeve for Stanton
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – New York Mets reliever A.J. Ramos has a plan for Giancarlo Stanton when the longtime Marlins teammates square off as crosstown rivals in 2018. Ramos hopes to share an apartment with Stanton in New York City during the season — they’re still looking at places — and joked that he will use his living situation to his advantage when it comes time to face Stanton and the Yankees.
“Definitely, for the subway series, I’m going to be setting some traps for him,” Ramos said at the Mets spring training complex on Monday. “Mess with his sleep a little bit, stuff like that.”
It is unclear what might constitute an effective trap for Stanton, as presumably he’s too savvy to fall for the ol’ protein-shake-under-a-giant-cardboardbox trick. But Ramos will have months to figure it out.
Though their in-season arrangements are far from finalized, Ramos laughed when asked about splitting grocery costs with a player who signed a $325 million contract extension in 2014, joking, “He buys it all, for sure.”
Per their long-running habit of showing up on each other’s Instagram feeds, Stanton and Ramos appear to hang out a lot, visit a bunch of beautiful and exotic locations together, attend awesome-looking parties and bro it down very hard, sometimes with Ricky Nolasco.
Ramos expressed confidence in Stanton’s ability to perform for the Yankees, nothing that Stanton’s evenkeeled manner suits him well for the challenge. And he pointed out the way the move to cozy Yankee Stadium should help the slugger.
“That park is very small, so that’s a plus for him,” Ramos said. “He can get jammed and hit a ball out there. You’re going from Miami, where you have to square one up to get one out, to New York where you can basically burp a ball out.”
A 21st-round pick of the Marlins in
2009, Ramos left the organization in a
2017 deadline deal, months before the team’s new owners dismantled its strong core of position players.
“It’s tough to be a Marlins fan, I think,” he said. “I feel bad for those fans. They get attached to players, then they get shipped off. Hopefully they’re doing it to get better — Miami’s a great city.”
And though he and Stanton now play for new teams, Ramos said their relationship remains the same off the field.
“I think the only time it’ll be different is when we’re playing against each other,” he said. “Other than that, he’s Giancarlo and I’m A.J. It’s not YankeeMet.”
The Mets will face the Yankees six times in the regular season in 2018, starting with a three-game series at Citi Field in June.