{"id":541373,"date":"2026-01-27T23:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T23:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/541373\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T23:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T23:23:14","slug":"amid-quiet-offseason-guardians-ensure-jose-ramirez-will-spend-his-entire-career-in-cleveland-can-the-rest-of-the-offense-step-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/541373\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid quiet offseason, Guardians ensure Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez will spend his entire career in Cleveland \u2014 can the rest of the offense step up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the third time in his career, third baseman Jose Ram\u00edrez has committed to the Cleveland Guardians, and vice versa. By agreeing to a seven-year, $175 million extension<\/a> that supersedes the three years and $69 million Ram\u00edrez had left on his previous deal and will keep him under contract through his age-39 season, the two parties have effectively ensured that this player-team relationship will, incredibly, go the distance.<\/p>\n

The first investment in this unique partnership came nine years ago<\/a>, when Ram\u00edrez, an unexpected key contributor on Cleveland\u2019s pennant-winning club in 2016, agreed to an extension that guaranteed him $26 million over five seasons, with club options for 2022 and 2023 worth $11 million and $13 million, respectively. As the expiration of that deal drew near \u2014 and with Ram\u00edrez having established himself as an all-around superstar \u2014 the two sides explored the possibility of a longer, more lucrative pact leading up to the 2022 season.<\/p>\n

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Considering Ram\u00edrez\u2019s tremendous on-field value relative to his modest salary \u2014 and a potentially larger payday looming in free agency \u2014 it was hardly a certainty that such a contract would come together. For a small-market club such as Cleveland to pay Ram\u00edrez enough that he would eschew the chance to cash in as a free agent was a daunting task. The Guardians even prepared possible trades to send Ram\u00edrez to either the Blue Jays or the Padres in the event that a deal could not be reached.<\/p>\n

[Get more Cleveland news: Guardians team feed<\/a>]\u00a0<\/p>\n

But against all odds and despite most precedents involving comparable situations, Ram\u00edrez and the Guardians hashed it out late in spring training 2022<\/a>, constructing a seven-year, $141 million contract that worked for both sides. The deal undeniably still underpaid Ram\u00edrez, but it was a sizable enough investment \u2014 and an outlier relative to the franchise\u2019s bottom-tier payroll \u2014 to warrant his putting down deeper roots with the only organization he\u2019s ever known. Having received just a $50,000 bonus when he signed as a teenager out of the Dominican Republic, Ram\u00edrez secured generational wealth a dozen years later \u2014 a monumental achievement regardless of whether his salary exactly matched his star-level performance.<\/p>\n

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Now, after another four seasons of face-of-the-franchise production, Ram\u00edrez and the Guardians have tripled down on their relationship with a new nine-figure deal, one that should extend to the conclusion of his playing career. Just three active players \u2014 Jose Altuve, Salvador Perez and Mike Trout, all of whom debuted in 2011 \u2014 have been in the majors with one team longer than Ram\u00edrez, who arrived in 2013. If Ram\u00edrez completes this deal as planned and retires thereafter, he will have played in parts of 20 seasons with Cleveland, joining an extremely exclusive group of players in major-league history<\/a> who played with one franchise for two decades, a cohort that is almost entirely enshrined in Cooperstown.<\/p>\n

Certainly, Ram\u00edrez will be headed to the Hall of Fame one day, too. Although the league\u2019s top honor has continued to elude him \u2014 no player in MLB history has amassed more MVP votes<\/a> without winning the award \u2014 his statistical r\u00e9sum\u00e9 stacks up comfortably. Since becoming an every-day player in 2016, Ram\u00edrez is tied with Mookie Betts for third among position players in fWAR<\/a>, behind only Francisco Lindor and Aaron Judge. Assuming he stays healthy \u2014 and he hasn\u2019t been on the injured list since 2019 \u2014 Ram\u00edrez will become just the ninth member of the 300 home run\/300 stolen base club at some point in 2026. And if his still-elite power-speed form is any indication, Ram\u00edrez might have a chance to join the 400 HR\/400 SB club, occupied by only Barry Bonds.<\/p>\n

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In short, the numbers speak for themselves, and Ram\u00edrez\u2019s eventual place at or near the top of every franchise leaderboard<\/a> will eventually be rewarded with a statue at Progressive Field and a plaque in upstate New York. But his individual efforts have yet to manifest in the collective triumph he and the Guardians continue to chase. World Series winners in 1948 and never since then, Cleveland\u2019s drought is nearing eight decades, the longest in MLB. When the Cubs ended their own infamous drought by defeating Cleveland in 2016, they passed off the burden to their Great Lakes neighbors. Ten years later, the Guardians\u2019 wait for a championship continues.<\/p>\n

By some measures \u2014 and accounting for its market size \u2014 Cleveland\u2019s efforts to contend with Ram\u00edrez have been admirable, if not downright impressive: The Guardians have qualified for the postseason six times and won the sixth-most regular-season games<\/a> in MLB over the past nine seasons. But viewed another way, Cleveland hasn\u2019t come especially close to winning it all, reaching the American League Championship Series only once during that span, when they lost to the Yankees in five games in 2024.<\/p>\n

Even as the personnel has changed year over year, Cleveland\u2019s success has often been rooted in its pitching. But the lineup surrounding Ram\u00edrez has rarely resembled that of a legitimate contender, with last year\u2019s offense representing a new low, even amid a historic second-half surge to claim another AL Central crown. The Guardians arrived in October with an offense that ranked 28th<\/a> in wRC+, with only <\/a>Ram\u00edrez<\/a> and sophomore slugger Kyle Manzardo<\/a> posting above-average batting lines in the regular season (All-Star Steven Kwan was a touch below at 99 wRC+). And with spring training fast approaching, Cleveland has done nothing this winter to upgrade its position-player group.<\/p>\n

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Several factors have contributed to this inaction. Most glaringly, ownership has demonstrated a complete unwillingness to elevate the payroll above the lowest rungs of the league. The front office has also exhibited a reluctance<\/a> to part with prospects in trades for more proven commodities. But the complete lack of external additions can also be explained by the genuine belief Cleveland has in its internal options on offense \u2014 a belief informed in part by Ram\u00edrez\u2019s unlikely example.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 650 plate appearances of Jose Ram\u00edrez, we wouldn\u2019t have said that he would have gone on to be an every-day player, let alone a Hall of Fame-caliber player,\u201d president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said at the winter meetings in December. \u201cMichael Brantley\u2019s first 500 or 600 plate appearances weren\u2019t great. Some other guys like Grady Sizemore come up and hit the ground running and is an All-Star from the day he sets foot on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Indeed, Ram\u00edrez posted a 78 wRC+ across 635 plate appearances in the majors from 2013 to 2015 before breaking through as a regular in 2016. So while Cleveland\u2019s front office isn\u2019t counting on any of its current young players to blossom into Hall of Famers like Ram\u00edrez did, it doesn\u2019t want to discard them prematurely. As such, the projected depth chart<\/a> features several players who have yet to entrench themselves as reliably productive hitters but remain in the mix for playing time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to find that right balance of urgency and patience,\u201d Antonetti said. \u201cObviously, we have urgency, we want to win as many games as we can and compete for a World Series \u2026 but with each individual, [we want to] have enough patience to give them an opportunity to be productive players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabriel Arias (76 wRC+ in 1,034 career plate appearances) has yet to translate his tremendous physical tools into reliable production. Brayan Rocchio (77 wRC+, 911 PA) has shined in some big moments, but the overall offensive output has underwhelmed. The versatile Angel Martinez (77 wRC+, 653 PA) has taken well to Ram\u00edrez\u2019s mentorship as a fellow Dominican switch-hitter, but his on-base skills have been woefully inadequate. Bo Naylor (88 wRC+, 1,041 PA) is still seeking consistency at the plate while balancing the rigors of catching.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs we looked at a lot of the possibility of external additions, one of the questions we continually have to ask ourselves is, ‘Whose opportunity does this impede? Which guys will we not be able to give plate appearances to because we\u2019re signing a free agent?,\u2019\u201d Antonetti reiterated recently<\/a> when asked about Cleveland\u2019s lack of additions. \u201cAnd in the end, we made the determination that we have a really exciting group of young players that are starting to emerge at the major-league level and depth beneath that. We want to give them the opportunity to contribute and fuel our success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps these players will reward Cleveland\u2019s patience in 2026. If not, it will be on the next wave of bats \u2014 Chase DeLauter, George Valera, C.J. Kayfus, Travis Bazzana \u2014 to form a worthwhile supporting cast while Ram\u00edrez is still in his prime. Kwan and Manzardo have answered the call, but more firepower is required. If the Guardians want to capitalize on this championship window opened in part by Ram\u00edrez\u2019s brilliance, it will take more than just their headlining superstar.<\/p>\n

Some consternation about Cleveland\u2019s stagnant offseason is warranted, but it\u2019s also not unique within the AL Central. No division has spent fewer combined dollars in free agency, with the last-place White Sox actually accounting for a healthy portion of said expenses. The Tigers have been quiet, promoting familiar sentiments about trusting their young players<\/a> while Tarik Skubal\u2019s historic arbitration case looms large. The Royals have made some intriguing trades but have spent very little in free agency and have a lot to prove after last year\u2019s letdown. The Twins have some solid pieces but haven\u2019t remotely replaced all the talent they dealt away last summer.<\/p>\n

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So without a juggernaut atop the division raising the standard through aggressive roster-building, the Guardians \u2014 with a top-tier manager in Stephen Vogt and a trustworthy track record of run prevention \u2014 have a compelling case as the team to beat in the AL Central in 2026. Of course, that doesn\u2019t absolve the organization of the well-earned skepticism regarding its plan to score more runs this year.<\/p>\n

But amid another quiet offseason, Cleveland has at least reinforced one of its few organizational certainties: Ram\u00edrez is the foundation on which the entire operation is built, and that will remain the case until the switch-hitting, base-stealing, slick-fielding, unrelenting, 5-foot-8 dynamo has dirtied his last uniform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the third time in his career, third baseman Jose Ram\u00edrez has committed to the Cleveland Guardians, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[106,5,867,6199,23633,22912,135,51,2565,227,1383,42301,14904,538,817,865,1389,58602,603,4,1526,43,373,860,2081,382,3627,148,396,142],"class_list":["post-541373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-guardians","tag-aaron-judge","tag-baseball","tag-bo-naylor","tag-brayan-rocchio","tag-c-j-kayfus","tag-chase-delauter","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-clevelandguardians","tag-francisco-lindor","tag-gabriel-arias","tag-george-valera","tag-grady-sizemore","tag-guardians","tag-jose-altuve","tag-jose-ramirez","tag-kyle-manzardo","tag-michael-brantley","tag-mike-trout","tag-mlb","tag-mookie-betts","tag-padres","tag-salvador-perez","tag-stephen-vogt","tag-steven-kwan","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-the-guardians","tag-twins","tag-white-sox","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}