TUCSON, Ariz. -- As 6-foot-3, 205-pound left-handed-hitting No. 24 took batting practice for Team Brazil at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday to prepare for the country’s first 2025 World Baseball Classic Qualifier game on Sunday vs. Colombia, the Brazilian club’s manager, Daniel Yiuchi Matsumoto, was talking about the 18-year-old Angels prospect’s power. At that very moment, a ball was crushed over the 375 mark in right field.
World Baseball Classic Qualifiers
Where to watch:
That hitter was outfielder Lucas Ramírez, son of former slugger and 12-time All-Star Manny Ramírez, he of the 555 Major League home runs. Lucas, whose mother Juliana hails from Brazil, is taking time from Angels’ Minor League camp in Tempe, Ariz., after traveling to Tucson to try to help the country qualify for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, along with Colombia, China and Germany.
And yes, the 24 on Lucas’ Team Brazil uniform is in honor of Manny, who had some of his best years in the big leagues for Cleveland and Boston with that number.
“That’s for my dad,” Lucas said. “Twenty-four has always been my favorite number, for my dad, when he wore it in Boston, killing the league. So, 24 is my number for him.”
It may be Lucas’ favorite number, and yes, his dad did mostly “kill the league” while wearing it during the first decade and a half of his career. But upon his arrival in Los Angeles at the 2008 Trade Deadline, Ramírez switched to 99 on the Dodgers, which he also wore with the White Sox in 2010 before changing back to 24 with the Rays in his last stint in the big leagues in 2011.
“Actually, I told him to wear 99,” said Manny Ramírez, on hand at Kino to watch Lucas and the Brazilian squad play this week. “I like 99.”
Lucas, the youngest of Manny’s three sons, was selected in the 17th round of last year’s Draft by the Angels after hitting four home runs and driving in 22 as a senior at American Heritage High School in South Florida. He decided to sign with the Angels and forego the opportunity to play college ball at the University of Tennessee, with the blessing of his father.
“He was really hands off and he really trusted that I knew what was best for me at the time,” Lucas said of Manny and his decision to go straight to pro ball from high school. “I felt like I was ready to go, and I knew they were going to take great care of me and make me a better player every day.”
As prepares for his first professional season, he is one of the youngest members of Team Brazil, which is trying to qualify for its second World Baseball Classic after going 0-3 in the 2013 tournament and failing to qualify for the next two. Of course, his dad is originally from the Dominican Republic, but with the established talent from that country, Brazil was his best chance to face international competition at this stage of his development.
“I think it’s more realistic for me to play for Brazil, to get a shot to play in the games,” Lucas admitted. “But he’s overall still proud.”
As Lucas Ramírez stood in the batter’s box Saturday, the question on everyone’s mind was how similar his swing was to that of his famous father’s. Of course, Manny was a right-handed hitter and Lucas is a lefty, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t parallels, at least in Lucas’ view.
“I believe it’s very much similar. We have the same movements,” Lucas said. “We don’t have the same stance, but we have the same hands and the same mechanics overall.”
On Sunday, Manny revealed that Lucas in fact was born right-handed, including hitting, but that he taught him to hit left-handed exclusively.
“To be honest, I always wanted to be a lefty, but I [didn’t have anybody] to teach me,” Manny said. “As soon as he was born, I said, ‘This guy’s going to be a lefty.’ And I started working with him as a lefty. If you’re a lefty, you’re going to see a lot more right-handed pitchers.”
To this day, the support is there from his dad in general, whenever needed.
“One-hundred percent,” Lucas said. “I talk to him every day about baseball and I tell him how I feel every day about what’s going on with my swing. He’s my hitting coach. We hit every day when we’re back home.”
For Matsumoto and the rest of Team Brazil, this is a getting to know you period for many of the players, especially those like Ramírez who haven’t worked out previously with the national team. But the first impressions are positive from both sides.
“He’s a fast athlete, defensively speaking. We already saw that he has what it takes,” said Matusmoto of Ramírez’s abilities in the outfield. “Offensively, we’re going to see how he’s going to perform. We saw his videos and we have great expectations for his performance in this World Baseball Classic qualifier.
“He’s a lefty and his father was a right-handed batter. So far, we are very excited to have him in the group and we have great expectations.”
And for Ramírez, the presence of players born in Japan with Brazilian roots playing for the squad, as well as those born in the latter country with Japanese heritage, has been a revelation.
“It’s super interesting,” he said. “I’ve seen how the Japanese [players] train and go about their business. They’re really super strict and they love to work.”
Ramírez is one of two sons of famous former Major Leaguers on Team Brazil in Tucson, with Dante Bichette Jr. also on the team. For Ramírez, playing baseball was a part of his upbringing since he was 5 years old. He says he pivoted to soccer for a time, but then “soccer got boring” at age 12 and he decided to switch back to baseball, with a particular motivation in mind.
“I’ve always wanted to be better than my dad," he said, "so that’s why I wanted to play baseball again.”
The journey toward that goal is just beginning. This week in Tucson, the objective is to show what he can do on an international stage before he continues his first spring camp in the Angels organization.
“Obviously to win it, to show my abilities, that I’m ready to play, to come out here every day and show the Angels that I’m ready to play,” Ramírez said. “I think I can bring some leadership and some big left-hand power. Also, some defense in the outfield.”