Enjoy The Agustín Ramírez Show For As Long As It Lasts

One of the tenets of being a Miami Marlins fan is that the future will always be presented as the appeal. The Marlins have made it a habit to trade away star after star for prospects who could eventually become stars, only to then be traded away for more prospects. Logic and reason would lead the team's fans to develop commitment issues, and in turn perhaps shy away from any promising young player, knowing that his time with the Marlins begins to come to an end the second he starts pitching well, or hitting like a machine.

Fortunately, "logic" and "reason" rarely exist in sports fandom, which is why I believe Agustín Ramírez will slug 1.000 and live forever. The 23-year-old catcher came to South Florida as another star left the Marlins: He was one of the New York Yankees' prospects in the trade for Jazz Chisholm Jr. last July. After a solid second half of the season with the delightfully named Triple-A affiliate Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, and a brief stint at the same club to start this year, Ramírez was called up on Monday as the Marlins began a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. After only two games, Ramírez has already found himself in the franchise's record books, and he's become the new promising young player to enjoy for an indeterminate amount of time. Given that he's only on the roster due to injuries to catchers Nick Fortes and Rob Brantly, Ramírez's monster debut is found money for a team that currently has few options behind the plate.

After going a combined 5-for-6 with two walks in a 6-3 win on Monday and a 4-3 victory on Tuesday, Ramírez became the first Marlins player to hit safely five times in his first two games for the team. He also became just the second Marlin ever to hit cleanup in one of his first two games with the team, after the immortal Lewin Díaz did so in 2020. It's not just about the .833 batting average, or his hilarious and certainly sustainable 2.208 OPS. It's that Ramírez hits the ever-loving snot out of the baseball.

While nothing beats the sound of a well-hit home run—the Giancarlo "Mike" Stanton Corollary, if you will—there's a specific sound to ripping a double that is just incomparable, and all three of Ramírez's doubles have been accompanied by acoustic excellence. Take your pick, really: Was the best sound the 110-mph one-hop ground rule double he hit on Monday night? Or was it the RBI double from later in that same game? Personally, I prefer the 111-mph double down the left field line from yesterday. Just listen to that crack of the bat:

Ramírez isn't going to hit .833 for the rest of this week, but for a team that has little going for it, this will have to do. That's the way to treat those flashes of brilliance from guys like Aristides Aquino or Yermín Mercedes: Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. It's never quite dignified to root for the Marlins, but these days, it's less embarrassing than usual. I'd much prefer to get caught up in a rookie ripping doubles than in, say, a six-run ninth inning that nonetheless still ends in defeat, which is what happened at the Marlins-Phillies game I attended on Saturday. Even if I got some joy out of hearing an entire Philadelphia crowd turn on Jordan Romano in real time, a loss is a loss.

Since that disappointment I witnessed in person, Miami has built a little three-game win streak and is climbing slowly back to .500; for a team I expected to lose over 100 games this season, a watchable season would be worth celebrating. The Marlins have a chance to sweep the Reds Wednesday afternoon, although Ramírez will be sitting out of the lineup today. Like so many Marlins prospects of yore, I'll get invested until he either plummets back to reality or gets shipped out for the next Ramírez-in-waiting. Until then, the fun can be found in those quick swings and squarely hit doubles, the moments that make the connection between promise and payoff.