SAN FRANCISCO — It would have to have been at least a decade and a half since Junior Roman first crossed paths with Heliot Ramos, but the retired Giants scout can’t remember exactly when. It’s understandable. Heliot was still in grade school when Roman visited his family’s house in Manaubo, Puerto Rico, to inquire about his older brother, Henry.
Now 24 years old and off to Arlington, Texas, as the Giants’ first homegrown All-Star outfielder since Chili Davis, what sticks out about Ramos to Roman, the scout who discovered him, was the first impression he made when their attention had turned to him, leading up to selecting him 19th overall in 2017.
Heliot Ramos #17 of the San Francisco Giants rounds the bases after hitting a three-run home run during the third inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field on June 20, 2024 in Birmingham, Alabama. (Photo by Casey Sykes/Getty Images)
“He was very confident,” Roman recalled of a teenaged Ramos. “He was just as straightforward as you can be. Looked you right in the eye, answered the question straightforward and with a lot of confidence. He’s always been a confident kid.”
Bat-flipping walks, launching home runs and playing a sensational center field, that swagger has been on full display as Ramos has taken the league by storm this season. Only called up May 8, six weeks into the season, Ramos is the Giants’ team-leader in multiple offensive categories and has been the among the most valuable outfielders in all of the major leagues, his 2.5 Wins Above Replacement tied with the Padres’ Fernando Tatis’ Jr. for fifth among National League outfielders.
Through ups and downs the previous two seasons, Ramos admits, that signature strut did waver. He had to rediscover it.
“I think everybody goes through that process in life. Sports or life, it don’t matter,” Ramos said. “I lost that confidence. But at the end of the day, I’m strong and kept fighting.”
Ramos’ All-Star bid was so unlikely that while his girlfriend, Carolina López, daughter, Heliana, dad, Agapito, and other brother Hector will accompany him at Globe Life Field, his mom, Norma, won’t be able to make it; she had a pre-planned trip to Spain. When he was optioned to Triple-A in one of the first rounds of cuts this spring, three weeks into camp, he had long lost the title of top prospect, and it could have been just another in a series of setbacks.
Since making his highly anticipated debut in 2022, Ramos had been called up and sent down eight times over the ensuing two seasons. He struggled mightily in 2022, posting career lows in most offensive categories in his second season at Triple-A, then lost 10 weeks of 2023 to an oblique strain.
The stops and starts and constant shuffling, Ramos acknowledged, were “tough,” but he credited two people, in particular, with helping him see them through.
His brother, Henry, knows something about struggling to get established in the majors. After being drafted by the Red Sox at 18 years old in 2010, Ramos, now 32, didn’t get his first taste of the big leagues until 2021, when he was 29, only a few months before Heliot would get his first call the following April.
“I’ve looked up to him since I was little,” said Heliot, the youngest of three brothers. “Just mental-wise, he was like, ‘Just keep fighting, Stay positive. Stay with yourself. You’re a good player. I actually believe you can do big things in the sport.’ Things that gave me a lot of perspective, like damn, there’s no way he’s been through all these struggles and he just keeps going. Same mentality, same confidence. Never changes. Of course he gets mad, he gets sad, but never changes.”
Ever-confident, Heliot envisioned himself taking a different path than his brother after the Giants made him their first-round selection in the 2017 amateur draft. Still only 17 years old when he was introduced at Oracle Park, Ramos boldly predicted he would be back to make his debut in only three years, at age 20.
While he achieved that goal in 2022, two years late, the season was maddeningly frustrating. When it was over, Ramos concluded, “I was like, ‘I need to do something. I need to figure something out. I need to dig deeper in my heart, in my mind, and just try to get better and be consistent. Work harder.’”
When he arrived at the Giants’ Papago Park facilities in Arizona that October, it was only to prepare to send him off to winter ball a few weeks later. But not long into his visit, Ramos abandoned those plans and resolved to work throughout the offseason with hitting coach Justin Viele, who calls Scottsdale home.
“It takes a lot for a player to dedicate his whole offseason to staying in Arizona when he’s from Puerto Rico,” Viele said. “You can tell what his end goal is and what his standard is for himself. He wasn’t happy after the ‘22 season and wanted to stay in Scottsdale. We’ve had a lot of guys in Arizona, but nobody more than Heliot.”
Matt Chapman #26 of the San Francisco Giants congratulates Heliot Ramos #17 after Ramos hit a solo home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the seventh inning of the MLB game at Chase Field on June 03, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
In the mornings, they would break down video. At night, Ramos would often visit the Viele house, where Justin’s wife, Alyssa, would cook for them — including Heliot’s first taste of sloppy joes — and they would discuss everything from the mental side of the game to finding staying power in the big leagues.
“Sometimes it isn’t always that bottom-line stat line,” Viele said. “It’s playing hard, running the bases well, playing good defense, being a good teammate, showing up for your teammates, being on the top step, being reliable when the manager asks something of you. If you get pinch-hit for, maybe internally you’re pissed but not outwardly; you’re rooting on the guy that’s hitting for you. And then just how to take at-bats, grind at-bats, how to fight with two strikes.”
When they weren’t talking, they were competing. And developing a good-natured rivalry.
As Viele detailed the games they would play every day in the batting cage — Ramos in various situations with a pitching machine that spit out sliders and splitters acting as a stand-in for Viele — he explained how, “I would whoop him,”
“Oh, yeah?” Ramos shot back. “What are you talking about?”
“Him and I, nonstop now, we talk so much smack,” Viele said. “Even in a time where we’re not playing a game that night, there’s still the competitive juices flowing. And he is ultra-competitive. Ultra competitive.”
Seeing the fruits of their labor this season, Viele said, has been ultra-rewarding.
Ramos’ electric play and impressive stat line are what earned him All-Star recognition, but where Viele sees the most progress is under-the-hood. If there is one underlying factor to his offensive breakout, it is his improved strike zone recognition and pitch selection.
“He’s actually starting to assess himself better than I’ve ever seen,” Viele said. “If he feels something is off, I’ll go and check and most of the time he’s right. He’s able to feel things in his swing that he wasn’t able to feel a couple years ago. All the video we watched, all the stuff we looked at, he can start to correct himself if he’s not feeling right.”
Ramos’ emergence this season ended one of the more notable droughts in franchise history. It had been 38 years since Chili Davis was an All-Star in 1986, the last outfielder drafted and developed by the Giants to earn the recognition.
San Francisco Giants Chili Davis is hugged by teammate Eddie Milner and gets high fives from others after crossing the plate on a hit by Will Clark to score the first run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the second inning of Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Oct. 9, 1987. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)
At the pace he’s on, Ramos could put an end to another ignominious streak. Since debuting in the second week of May, Ramos has launched a team-high 14 homers, putting him on pace for 39 over 162 games. The Giants haven’t had a player hit 30 home runs since Barry Bonds last did it in 2004.
All this, Roman said, is what he envisioned when he recommended the Giants spend their first-round pick on a raw 17-year-old.
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A few years into retirement and almost a decade removed from the pre-draft process that put Ramos on the path to represent the Giants in the All-Star Game, Roman isn’t afraid to admit he didn’t have a first-round grade on Ramos until two or three months before the draft.
“He wasn’t a standout; he was just one of the players on the team,” Roman said. “He was strong, he was athletic, he could run, he could throw, he could play defense. But I wasn’t convinced about how consistently he was going to hit. Baseball knowledge and stuff like that (too). But he just kept getting better and better as I kept seeing him.”
Watching Ramos on television from Puerto Rico, Roman said, “Anytime he swings the bat, I feel like I’m swinging it with him.”
He’ll be tuning in Tuesday, when Ramos puts on the National League jersey for the 94th Midsummer Classic.
It all hit Ramos when the team plane touched down Sunday and he turned his phone on to a text from a coach from his academy in Puerto Rico.
“I just realized I was actually going to the All-Star Game and I couldn’t stop crying,” Ramos said. “It was insane to me. It just hit me because I know what my family had been through, how much I had to work to get here.”
