Kelly Ramos

Kelly Giovany Ramos Clamato
Italian sources list last name as Ramos Reyes

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 218 lb.

• Born October 15, 1976 in San Pedro de Macoris, San Pedro de Macoris D.R.

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Catcher Kelly Ramos has spent over 15 years in pro baseball, peaking at AAA.

Mets system

Ramos debuted with the 1994 DSL Mets, hitting .250/.277/.250 in 20 games. He was with the same club in 1995, hitting .253 with 3 home runs, then split 1996 between the DSL Mets (.289, 2 HR) and GCL Mets (.186/.226/.220). In 1997, he batted .224/.298/.376 for the Kingsport Mets, showing some power (7 HR, 32 RBI in 50 games) and a fine throwing arm (52% of attempted base-stealers caught). He tied for second on the club in home runs. In 1998, Ramos put up a .298/.335/.442 line with 6 triples (over half his US minor league total) for the Pittsfield Mets. He threw out 48% of would-be base thieves. He was only two triples shy of New York-Penn League leader Zach Sorensen. He was named to the NYPL All-Star team, splitting the honor at catcher with Matt Frick and Paul Hoover.

The San Pedro de Macoris native hit a career-high 12 home runs in 1999 and threw out 45% of attempted base-stealers while with the Capital City Bombers (.256/.305/.424 in 82 G, 9 BB, 52 K) and St. Lucie Mets (.188/.253/.325 in 24 G). That winter, he was the player to be named later in a deal to the Boston Red Sox for Mandy Romero.

Boston and Baltimore chains

Kelly produced at a .246/.322/.389 rate in 2000 with the Augusta Greenjackets (73 games) and Trenton Thunder (8 games). He bounced around the Boston system in 2001, making 56 appearances for Trenton (.209/.236/.368), 17 for the Sarasota Red Sox (.167/.191/.197) and 5 for the Pawtucket Red Sox (3 for 13, all singles, no walks in his lone stint in AAA). He was 4 for 29 for Trenton in 2002, ending his time in the Boston chain.

Signing with the Baltimore Orioles for 2003, he appeared for the Aberdeen Ironbirds (5 for 24, 2B, 2 HR, BB), Delmarva Shorebirds (.239/.315/.407 in 34 G) and Bowie Baysox (.206/.243/.340 in 30 G).

Italy

Moving to Italy's Fortitudo Bologna club in 2005, he hit .265/.335/.355 while continuing to show good defense (.995 fielding percentage, 15 SB, 17 CS). He was 7 for 24 in the finals to help Bologna to the title. He won the Gold Glove for catcher in Serie A1 and also was named the All-Star catcher. The switch-hitting backstop's batting line was .256/.322/.356 in a second season for Bologna. He also was less successful at gunning down opposing runners, allowing 33 steals while throwing out only 14. He tripled his error total from two to six.

In 2007, Ramos played for Grosseto. He hit .248/.311/.386. In the finals, he was 5 for 25 with a homer but still won his second Italian pennant. He still repeated as an All-Star and Gold Glove winner. The next campaign, he improved to .306/.373/.438 and played error-free ball. He won the Gold Glove and All-Star honors. He didn't have the highest average of players named Ramos on his club - that honor went to Jairo Ramos. In the 2008 European Cup Final Four, he went 1 for 4 with four walks. His lone hit was a homer off FC Barcelona's Remigio Leal. He had not played in the first round of the Cup, as Luca Bischeri was doing the catching for Grosseto.

Kelly did not play in Italy or the US in 2009 after Grosseto released him. In 2010, he returned to Grosseto, with Bischeri moving to 1B. Ramos hit .253/.323/.322 while only throwing out six of 26 attempted base-stealers. He signed with Nettuno for 2011 and hit .253/.329/.338 in his final campaign; in the 2011 Italian Series, he twice had Nettuno's only RBI, with a two-run homer off Tiago Da Silva in Game 3 and singling in Ennio Retrosi in the Game 7 loss to San Marino.

Post-Playing Career

Ramos became a coach with the DSL Tigers 2 in 2019. He was catching coach of the DSL Tigers 1 in 2024.