CLEVELAND, Ohio — José Ramírez may have finished third in the American League MVP race yet again, but he can take solace — as he often must — in being the Guardians’ most valuable player year after year.

The Cleveland chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday named Ramírez its 2025 Bob Feller Man of the Year Award winner, the fourth time he has earned the honor after also receiving it in 2016, 2021 and 2022. Ramírez topped a field of nominees that included reliever Cade Smith, starting pitcher Gavin Williams and outfielder Steven Kwan.

In a separate vote, Guardians veteran pitching coach Carl Willis was named the recipient of the chapter’s Frank Gibbons/Steve Olin Good Guy Award.

For Ramírez, the award is a familiar distinction, even if it isn’t the one he covets most. The AL MVP trophy has remained just out of reach during his career, with stars like Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani often blocking his path. But in 2025, the Guardians’ switch-hitting third baseman gave Cleveland everything he had in his 13th big league season.

He appeared in 158 games — marking the eighth time in the last nine full seasons he has played at least 152 — and more often than not provided the only spark for a lineup that ranked among the league’s weakest for much of the summer.

Ramírez hit .283 with an .863 OPS, 30 home runs, 85 RBI and 103 runs scored while posting a career-high 44 steals. He earned his seventh All-Star selection, sixth Silver Slugger Award, and was a Gold Glove Award finalist for the seventh time. He was also Cleveland’s nominee for the Heart and Hustle Award and a finalist for the American League’s Hank Aaron Award.

His performance helped propel the Guardians to a historic 15½-game comeback to win the AL Central over the Tigers on the final day of the season, and it earned him his fourth career finish as an MVP finalist — his eighth top-10 placement in the last nine years.

The year was a historic one across Ramírez’s stat line. He delivered a career-best 21-game hit streak from May 6–28, the second-longest in MLB this season, and a 39-game on-base streak from April 30 to June 14, also the longest of his career.

In August, he became the 17th player in major-league history — and only the fourth to do so with one franchise — to surpass 275 home runs and 275 stolen bases. He is the only primary third baseman and just the second switch hitter, joining Carlos Beltrán, to reach that mark.

Ramírez became Cleveland’s all-time leader in extra-base hits (726) and set the club record for multi-homer games with his 27th on Aug. 12 against Miami. His performance earned him All-MLB First Team honors for the second time and further solidified his trajectory toward Cooperstown.

Through all of it, Ramírez continued to embody the leadership and competitiveness that have long defined him. Manager Stephen Vogt praised his example earlier this month, saying, “We’re all in this together and we’re all in this to win in Cleveland and our players know that. And our best player, José Ramírez, embodies that every single day. You have to fall in line with the way he plays the game because if you don’t, you’ll hear about it from him. And no one wants that.”

Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti echoed that sentiment after the season, noting, “When he sets the standard and the example for not just the performance but the relentless approach to every pitch … that’s the type of leadership that we’re so fortunate to have.”

Vogt added, “The best players in the world continue to get better and push themselves to get better, and we couldn’t be more thankful to have that example playing third base and hitting third every day.”

Realistically, Ramírez is in the conversation for the Bob Feller Man of the Year Award nearly every time he suits up for Cleveland. In 2025, as he carried the Guardians on both offense and defense and on the bases, guided them through a record-setting September push and continued to rewrite the franchise record book, the honor felt as fitting as ever.

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