Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman and Jake Mintz break down Jose Ramirez’s new $175 million contract extension with the Cleveland Guardians. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
View more
Advertisement
Video Transcript
Mr. Ramirez and the Cleveland Guardians, the only employer he has ever known.
They have agreed to a new extension worth $175 million.
It will add seven years onto his deal.
It will keep him in Cleveland until he is 40.
Years old.
It’s really adding only, only four years to a extension that he was already on, and this is part of why this news kind of caught people by surprise, because Jos Ramrez’s original contract.
Which was actually the second extension that he had signed since arriving.
When Jose kind of became an everyday player in 2016 for the team that won the pennant, that was like, kind of came out of nowhere, and before the 2017 season.
Advertisement
They signed him to his first extension, which was, like, five years, $26 million, with team options for 2022 and 2023.
So that was the first team-friendly deal that you know.
We’ve seen styles of contracts signed early in their career.
But for a player who was not considered a top prospect.
Now, as they approach the end of that first contract, which is the 2022 season, which really would’ve been that first of those team options worth.
Like, $11 million.
At this point, Jos Ramrez has been an MVP finalist multiple times.
He’s clearly one of the best players in baseball, and so they started discussing restructuring their contract and, and coming up with a larger extension.
Advertisement
Players who are better in the 21st century than him: Pujols, Rodriguez, Beltre, Trout, Betts, Miggy.
Judge, Ichiro, Barry Bonds, Chipper Jones.
I think there’s a Machado.
Argument.
I think there is a Freddie Freeman argument, and I think there is some Robinson Cano argument that I don’t feel like making.
That puts him in the 10 to 15 range of best players of the century.
Right?
That is rare air.
That is a special, special, special thing that we’re getting to witness.