The 2020s, so far, have rewarded a lot of players who've spent their entire careers performing to the best of the league's ability without much to show for it. In 2020, 30somethings Jose Abreu and Freddie Freeman received their first MVP awards, in 2022 Paul Goldschmidt received his right at the end of his peak period, and in 2024 Chris Sale, after an astonishing comeback year, finally got a Cy Young. Dusty Baker, Shohei Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw and Ronald Acuna finally got rings. Just this year, Dick Allen finally got inducted into the Hall of Fame.
It was time for all of those long-suffering greats. So when will Jose Ramirez, rightfully, be rewarded for being one of the best hitters in baseball for the past ten years?
Ramirez has finished in the Top 3 of MVP voting 3 times, and in the top 5 of MVP voting 5 times. He has a career 52.2 WAR, and has finished with a 6.5 or higher four times, including last year. He was inches away from a World Series in his fourth year in the bigs. The closest thing to a down year this man has had since coming up has been 2019, with a measly 3.0 WAR and a .255 average. Everything else has been way above the standard. And already this year, J-Ram has had a 3-homer game. You know, one of those.
The single best thing about J-Ram's continued dominance is that no matter how much the Guardians have changed from 2016, now emphasizing contact over power and bullpen over starters, the fans still absolutely adore him. Again, you look at 2016 and Brantley, Lindor and Kluber are king, and now J-Ram is the Joey Votto type figure. Always hits like hell, always hustles, what's not to love? And you can tell he absolutely loves playing in Cleveland, and he loves that he gets to be the captain of these teams. Even somebody like Votto or Gwynn, the team wouldn't always be competitive, there'd be lulls. The Guardians have pretty much always been in the thick of it, no matter of people leave or not. And now that Vogt is powering this team to a new contact horizon, even without Naylor or Gimenez, stock is still very high on Cleveland baseball, and it's still very much because of J-Ram.
There are worries, like whatever's been going on with Emmanuel Clase, or the lack of proven options in the rotation, or where Jones and Thomas's production is, but with Ramirez, Kwan and the new, improved, contact/defense favoring Carlos Santana all off to great starts, the Guardians still have a lot going for them, and could still accomplish a lot this year.
As for whether or not this is J-Ram's MVP year? Well...Aaron Judge still exists, and Bobby Witt Jr. still exists, and Alex Bregman is looking pretty hot in Boston. The AL's always gonna be a crapshoot for the MVP race, and Ramirez could power his way there if enough things go his way. Still, Tony Gwynn never got an MVP, Derek Jeter never got an MVP and Nolan Ryan never got a Cy Young. But that didn't stop them.
Coming Tomorrow- Two years ago he was the only man in New York who wasn't hitting. Now he's the only man in Pittsburgh who is.
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