CLEVELAND — Editor's note: the video in the player above is from the May 27, 2022, episode of the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show.
The Cleveland Guardians have had some bright spots, some not-so-bright spots, and about as many ups and downs as one would expect from one of the younger teams in baseball.
The Guardians are sitting at 20-24 after Memorial Day, 6.5 games behind first-place Minnesota in the American League Central. The likelihood of this team contending for the playoffs was always going to be relatively small. This season has always been about the future rather than the present. It’s perfectly fine to have a year like this one in order to help create a new window of contention.
That said, no one told José Ramírez.
Thus far this season, Ramírez has been one of the best players in all of baseball. After finishing in the top six of the American League MVP voting in four out of the last five years, Ramírez is on pace to put forth another season that garners MVP support.
On Monday, Ramírez became the first player in the Major Leagues to cross over the 50 runs batted in threshold. Monday was also the 10th time this season that Ramírez has had three or more runs batted in during a single game. It was Cleveland's 44th game of the season, making Ramírez the fastest player to accomplish that feat since Jimmie Foxx in 1940.
This spring, Ramírez ultimately could have been traded away to another organization. He had the option to essentially sign a contract extension worth considerably less than his talent would fetch on the open market, or be traded to a different team with deeper pockets. Ramírez chose to take the hometown discount of all hometown discounts. He signed an extension of seven years, worth $141 million, and still has a claim that he’s the game’s most severely underpaid player.
So far this season, Ramírez ranks amongst the game’s best, yet again. Through Memorial Day Ramírez is baseball’s leader with 51 runs batted in, tied for fourth with 13 home runs, tied for the league lead in triples, tied for third with Mike Trout in FanGraphs WAR and third in weighted runs created plus (a stat that shows a player’s total offensive output, league average is 100) at 196.
Simply put, Ramírez has been one of the best players in all of baseball, again.
While the team will likely fall short of any sort of playoff race down the stretch of the season, Ramírez has a chance to keep things interesting in yet another MVP race. After a pair of third-place finishes, sixth-place last season and a second-place finish in 2020, maybe this is the year for Ramírez. Even if it isn’t, he’s the best player the Guardians have had in quite some time and has a chance to have his name mentioned as the greatest in franchise history when it’s all said and done.
Just because this season may be an appetizer for brighter days ahead organizationally, don’t let that take away from the greatness Ramírez showcases on a nightly basis.