As valued commenter Teej remarked in the thread below, Aaron Laffey is kind of like Horacio Ramirez. How kind of like Horacio Ramirez is he? Let's compare Laffey to Ramirez at the time of his trade to the Mariners.
First of all, they're both six foot-ish lefties. Laffey works off a high-80s sinking fastball, a mediocre slider, and a mediocre change. Ramirez worked off of a high-80s sinking fastball, a cutter, a mediocre slider, and a mediocre change. Ramirez had a more interesting repertoire, but it's close. Ramirez's arm slot was a little higher.
And as for performance:
| Laffey | Ramirez | |
| K% | 11% | 11% |
| BB% | 9% | 9% |
| GB% | 52% | 50% |
I'm not saying Laffey is doomed to have as lousy as Mariner career as Ramirez did, and it's not like Laffey is being automatically inserted into the starting rotation as Ramirez was after costing us a big talent, but, you know, yikes.