CLEVELAND — It took Jose Ramirez a few years of playing every day to feel comfortable in a major league uniform.
Fast forward about eight years, and the moment the April 6 game hits official status (after the fifth inning), no player will have worn a Cleveland baseball uniform more times than the Guardians’ switch-hitting, always-strutting All-Star third baseman.
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As of April 6, Ramirez will own the Guardians franchise record for games played with Cleveland at 1,620, passing Terry Turner on the club’s all-time list. It is perhaps the most fitting record Ramirez holds or will hold in the near future, a list that will only continue to grow as he wreaks havoc on the Cleveland record books.
Nobody has embodied Guardians baseball better than Ramirez over the last 10 years. And considering the team-friendly deals he has now signed multiple times — the last one guaranteeing he’ll remain in Cleveland until he’s roughly 40 years old — arguably nobody has ingratiated himself to the Cleveland fanbase in a better way.
“I think among all the records, I feel that’s one of the most important because it kind of resembles what I wanted to do with this team,” Ramirez said through a team translator. “That was my ultimate goal, to play as long as I could here and be able to be part of those records that are happening now.”
Jose Ramirez stats
Ramirez has come a long way from a prospect in 2013 who was originally used mostly as a pinch-runner. It doesn’t mean that’s all the Guardians ever envisioned for him, but nobody could have seen the decade-plus that would follow. Since Ramirez became a full-time starter in 2016, he’s been named an All-Star seven times, a Silver Slugger six times and finished in the top five in MVP voting six times.
Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez throws to first base as shortstop Gabriel Arias looks on against the Chicago Cubs on April 5, 2026, in Cleveland.
His name is littered throughout the Guardians record books. He’s second in home runs (286), second in RBIs (954), second in total bases (3,018), second in stolen bases (289), third in runs scored (1,003) and fourth in bWAR (57.6).
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But despite always owning the swagger-filled strut, Ramirez, now reflecting on his career to this point, said it did take him time to settle into a comfort zone.
“I think around 2018, that’s when I actually found my footing and I felt that, OK, this is what I can be and this is where I belong,” Ramirez said. “I recall a young guy who was really hungry, really trying to make a name for himself and just trying to stay as long as I could in the majors.”
Ramirez settled in as not only a major league regular but one of the best infielders in the game. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt remembers feeling lucky he played in the National League for a few years, as he no longer had to work with pitchers to figure out how to get Ramirez out.
When Vogt returned to the American League for his final season as a player, the answer still hadn’t come to him.
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“Coming back and seeing him in 2022, it wasn’t fair,” Vogt said. “There was nowhere to get him out. There were no holes [in his swing]. Just super impressed by how he played the game.”
No player will have put the Cleveland uniform on more than Ramirez, a testament to not only his talent, but his willingness to remain by the shores of Lake Erie during an era in which players staying with one club has become increasingly rare.
It’s especially true with star players. And it’s especially true with mid-market teams. A star player on a mid-market team for his entire carer? It might never happen again.
“You dream of playing for the team that drafts you for the rest of your career,” Vogt said. “That’s what every player wants. And I think very few people actually have that reality, just with the way the game works, everybody wants different things.
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“It’s a dream come true for most players, and it’s really fun to watch Hosey live it out.”
Ryan Lewis covers the Cleveland Guardians and Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jose Ramirez sets Guardians games played record, reflects on career