CLEVELAND — The most challenging part of designing the José Ramírez statue will be figuring out how to suspend his helmet in air, gravity be damned.

That’s the prevailing image of the face of the Cleveland Guardians franchise, the perennial MVP candidate zipping from one base to another, his helmet abandoned somewhere along his dash. He has time to create more iconic poses and memories, though — Ramírez and the club are finalizing a contract extension that will keep him in Cleveland through the 2032 season, when he’ll be 40 years old and sitting comfortably atop just about every worthwhile category on the franchise leaderboard.

There’s no need to wait until Ramírez retires to gift him a statue at Progressive Field, greeting the fans passing through the turnstiles in their replica No. 11 jerseys. If it wasn’t already clear, this is Ramírez’s team, his franchise, his city. His approval rating is too high to compute.

This is Ramírez’s third below-market extension to stay in the only big-league place he’s ever known. Who does that? He’s almost certainly bound for Cooperstown one day and the cap the Hall of Fame artists sketch onto his bust will have a Diamond C. That’s how he’s long envisioned it.

But it almost didn’t happen.

If not for his insistence on consummating a deal in the hours before Opening Day in 2022, Ramírez would have been a Toronto Blue Jay or a San Diego Padre. Those teams were on hold as Ramírez, team president Chris Antonetti, assistant GM Matt Forman and staff assistant and interpreter Agustín Rivero (who was still in full spring training uniform) crammed into the visiting manager’s office at Chase Field to hash out the particulars on which, for weeks, they hadn’t aligned. They joined a call with owner Paul Dolan, who was in Cleveland, GM Mike Chernoff, who was in an Uber after flying home from Phoenix, and Ramírez’s agent, Rafa Nieves, who was in California.

That conference call spurred a franchise-altering extension, and Ramírez later voiced how he wanted to remain in Cleveland for the duration of his career. This time, Ramírez and Nieves met with team brass — including owner Paul Dolan and prospective owner David Blitzer — in Cleveland, and with another long-term pact near the finish line, that hope is being realized.

Before long, Ramírez will be Cleveland’s all-time leader in games played, hits, runs, home runs, doubles and RBIs — just as everyone projected as he was climbing the minor-league ranks, right? Hardly.

Even when Ramírez was tormenting teenage pitchers in A-ball, evaluators both inside and outside of the organization considered him an eventual utility infielder, with only the most optimistic scouting experts willing to ponder whether he could lock down some team’s second base job. In Cleveland, he was deemed the replacement for versatile veteran Mike Aviles. Instead, he might one day be more aptly compared to Mike Schmidt.

The contract, an industry source told The Athletic, would tack on an additional $106 million over four years to the $69 million Ramírez is already owed over the next three seasons. In all, $70 million of his future salary will be deferred, or $10 million per season. Each $10 million sum will be paid out in 10 increments of $1 million per year, starting 10 years after the original date.

That means Ramírez will have signed three extensions totaling 16 seasons and $271 million. His first extension, completed just before the 2017 opener, guaranteed him $24 million over five years. His second extension covered seven years and was worth $141 million. This deal will ultimately be worth $175 million and cover the final three years of the previous extension, plus the additional four years.

That’s a lifetime of below-market commitments from a player who never wanted to leave a franchise with stingy spending habits. It’s a perfect union, and a rare one in today’s game.

Even at his bargain rate, Ramírez was set to represent more than a quarter of Cleveland’s payroll in 2026. The Guardians, who have won the AL Central three of the past four years, have neglected to bolster a lineup that ranked near the bottom of the league in just about every worthwhile category this winter.

That places much of the onus on Ramírez to keep churning out All-Star seasons, but to this point, even as he approaches his age-33 season, he has exhibited no signs of decline. In 2025, he finished third in the AL MVP balloting behind Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh, as Ramírez totaled 30 homers, 34 doubles and 44 stolen bases. He joined Alfonso Soriano as the only players in league history with multiple seasons of 30-plus homers, 30-plus doubles and 40-plus steals. It was his seventh top-six finish in the MVP voting in the past nine years. With 15 homers and 13 stolen bases this season, he’ll become the ninth player in major-league history with 300 or more home runs and 300 or more steals.

José Ramírez’s franchise ranks

StatisticRamírez’s rankRamírez’s totalFirst-place totalLeader

Games played

3rd

1,609

1,619

Terry Turner

Hits

7th

1,668

2,052

Nap Lajoie

Runs

3rd

1,001

1,154

Earl Averill

Home runs

2nd

285

337

Jim Thome

RBIs

2nd

949

1,084

Earl Averill

Stolen bases

2nd

287

452

Kenny Lofton

Ramírez has long been the cornerstone of Cleveland’s lineup, but he has also grown into a leader behind the scenes — the most surprising development to those who watched a reticent young player try to find his big-league footing early in his career. Mike Napoli helped Ramírez grow comfortable in a big-league clubhouse in 2016, and now Ramírez forges bonds with every teammate, regardless of one’s language or major-league status. He has mentored Brayan Rocchio, George Valera, Angel Martínez, and even those who didn’t stick around Cleveland for long, such as Estevan Florial and Deyvison De Los Santos.

His light-hearted attitude, boundless energy and unwavering competitiveness kept the club loose last year during a few tumultuous stretches, which helped the Guardians mount the greatest comeback to win a division in league history.

That character is staying in Cleveland for the long haul, until his career reaches its final chapter. Ramírez’s new deal won’t have any opt-outs. He negotiated a no-trade clause into his previous extension, but now he has 10/5 rights (10 years of service time, including five with his current team), so that no-trade protection is now secured through the end of his Guardians tenure.

He’ll turn 40 on Sept. 17, 2032. His contract will expire a few weeks after that. There’s no need to wait until then to erect the statue, though. The Guardians just need to figure out what to do with his helmet first.