Pedro Ramirez, the 22-year-old infielder from Temblador, Venezuela, whose outstanding play in spring training caught the attention of the Cubs, was named International League Player of the Month by Minor League Baseball (MiLB).
Through Sunday, the 5-9 switch-hitter had a .312/.381/.584/.965 slash line for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs this season, with eight home runs and 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts.
Ramirez, who has split his time between third base (17 starts) and second base (11), already has matched his season high in home runs in five previous seasons of minor-league ball.
“I’m really happy for Pedro,” big-league Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Tuesday. “He had a wonderful spring. He was the player that the other players talked about. There is always ‘that guy’ in spring training, and to go see him back it up in the first month of the season, that’s pretty cool.
“He’s a big-leaguer. He’s going to be a good big-leaguer. He’s got a really good head on his shoulders, really good baseball intelligence, so it’s great to see him off to a good start and really taking another step.”
On the High-A level, South Bend Cubs right-hander Brooks Caple, 23, was named Midwest League Pitcher of the Month for April. A 2024 ninth-round pick out of Lamar University in Texas, Caple held hitters to a .179 average while striking out 24 and walking three in 18 2/3 innings.
Earl Weaver would be proud
Entering play Tuesday, the Cubs had eight three-run homers this season. They won all eight of those games.
The latest was Seiya Suzuki’s 455-foot blast off Reds rookie Chase Petty in the fourth inning Monday night at Wrigley Field. It was Suzuki’s second-longest homer with the Cubs, four feet shy of the 459-footer he hit at Wrigley Field on Aug. 1, 2024, against the Cardinals’ Sonny Gray.
An odd coincidence: Gray and Petty were traded for each other in 2022 when the Twins sent Petty, their No. 1 draft choice from the year before, to the Reds for Gray.
Moises Ballesteros has the Cubs’ only grand slam of the season to date, against the Padres on April 27. The Cubs lost that game.
By the way, their game against the Reds on Monday — a 5-4 walk-off victory on a solo homer by Michael Conforto — went into the books under “wind blowing out” at Wrigley. The Cubs have the best home record in the majors at 15-5 and are 8-1 when the wind is blowing out.
‘Alligator arms’
Reds center fielder Dane Myers told reporters he “kind of alligator-armed” Pete Crow-Armstrong’s drive to the center-field wall in the ninth inning Monday before hitting the ivy. The drop resulted in a triple to lead off the inning with the Cubs trailing 4-3.
“That’s one I like to make for my pitchers,” Myers said. “It’s a tough one not to make.”
PCA empathized.
“It’s tough,” Crow-Armstrong said of navigating the wind, vines and wall at Wrigley. “He’s a really good center fielder, too. I think the hardest part sometimes for someone coming in as an opposing player is not being used to the size and having as much space to roam. [Myers is] really good at playing balls off the wall. . . . It’s just a tough place to play. . . . I’m sure he makes that catch the next time.”
