NEW YORK — The length of a baseball season allows for many different types of days. There are doubleheaders, which the Pirates can’t seem to avoid, plus getaway days, rain delays, slogs and quick games.
One Yohan Ramirez has yet to experience: a bad day.
The Pirates reliever might be the happiest man on the planet, always positive and upbeat, smiling relentlessly, his personality mirroring that "blingy" belt he wore earlier this season at Globe Life Field in Texas.
“He’s a pure heart-and-spirit guy,” said Pirates Major League coach Stephen Morales.
“He shows up every day with great energy,” manager Don Kelly added.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him anything other than ecstatic to be here,” Mason Montgomery said.
Ramirez has also been pitching extremely well, as he’s one of four MLB relievers who’s worked at least 10 innings without allowing an earned run since June 6, but this weekend may take the right-hander’s ebullient energy up a notch or three.
That’s because the person he says he gets his personality from the most — his mother Yolanda — will finally get to see her son pitch in a Major League game for the first time.
Yolanda Ramirez arrived in Pittsburgh over the All-Star break, before the Bucs departed for Cleveland and New York.
“We drove by the stadium when she got to Pittsburgh,” Yohan Ramirez said, with Morales translating. “The joy on her face was amazing. When she saw my picture outside the stadium, she got even more excited.”
In addition to Yolanda, Yohan said he gets his relentless positivity from her brother, who actually used to live in New York. He passed away last year, shortly after Yolanda arrived in Pittsburgh, forcing her to fly home without seeing her son pitch.
This year, she’ll be at PNC Park when Yohan jogs out from the bullpen, pants pulled up high, smiling from ear-to-ear and eager to tackle any number of roles the Pirates have used their Swiss Army Knife this season.
“It’ll be amazing to have my mom see me pitch,” Yohan said. “The positivity, it runs in our family. We’ve just always been really outgoing and happy.”
That might be underselling it a bit.
Ramirez operates like he’s wearing a batting helmet with cups of coffee on either side, but he said the energy is mostly natural.
It’s what keeps things light in the bullpen, like Ramirez catching a home run in a cone. Good luck getting past him without some sort of greeting, often a fist bump or a hug.
Even if Ramirez struggles on the mound, the personality never changes, something his teammates certainly can appreciate.
“He’s amazing,” Gregory Soto said. “He makes everybody happy every day, especially in the bad days. … I’m sure he’s had a bad day before, but he never shows it.”
Growing up in Villa Mella, Dominican Republic, Ramirez said he learned a saying as a kid that he never forgot. He shortens it to “bad day, good face,” but its contents frame how he operates no matter what.
You can’t always have a good day. But you can always face a bad day with a good attitude.
It’s a grueling season. Every MLB player has bad days or poor stretches. But Ramirez refuses to let any of that affect his mood. He’s appreciative of the work, the opportunity he has to do this for a living, and he’s simply incapable being anything other than relentlessly positive.
“The way I see it, we’re a family,” Ramirez said. “We’re here together every day, grinding through the days as a team. What I’m trying to do is make everyone around me feel like a family. That way we can win games.”
Apparently that light-heartedness extends to the manager’s office, too.
Kelly has titled Ramirez the assistant traveling secretary, a position supporting manager of team travel Ryan Denlinger. Instead of suggesting a uniform switch from polyester to cotton or offering batting tips like George Costanza, Ramirez made his presence felt a few weeks ago.
Prior to road trips, the Pirates submit names for TSA screening, but Ramirez had some fun with it and singled out Kelly, dropping the piece of paper featuring just one name highlighted in Kelly’s office.
“I just try to do my part to help [Denlinger] do his job quicker,” Ramirez said, cracking up. “That way we can get out of places quicker.”
Said Morales while laughing at Ramirez’s response and part-time job: “It’s hard to not love him.”
Especially if he keeps pitching like this. Righties are hitting just .202 (21 for 104) against Ramirez, while his 59 strikeouts are 13th among MLB relievers. When it comes to pitching with runners in scoring position — a key part of his fireman duties — Ramirez has allowed just 11 hits in 74 at-bats (.149). His scoreless streak (18 2/3 innings) is the longest for a Bucs reliever since Dennis Santana went 19 1/3 in 2024.
“It’s a matter of hard work and not changing the way I’ve been working, being in the moment and controlling the things that I can control,” Ramirez said. “I can’t control the results, but I know I can control myself during the process.”
Opponents are hitting just .141 off Ramirez’s sweeper, which he throws 35.1% of the time. The pitch moves a ton and has netted a whiff rate of 37.8%. When Ramirez has been around the plate, his four-seamer has been effective, and it was up 2 mph to 98.5 mph Saturday in Cleveland.
The stuff and strikeouts are important for Ramirez, but it’s more so the attitude he brings, a strength that has been cultivated over the ultimate journeyman career.
The same as Kelly, Ramirez has been designated for assignment nine times, including five in 2024.
Yet he refuses to let it get him down, always remaining positive and heeding important lessons from the better clubhouses he’s been in — teams that win are the ones with chemistry, where everyone is pulling for one another.
“They’re happy,” Ramirez said. “That translates on the field when it comes to playing games.”
That has been the case this season for the Pirates. And now Yolanda Ramirez will get to see it for herself, mom and son smiling the entire time.
Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.