The Cleveland Guardians are just 3.5 games out of the final American League Wild Card spot with 16 games to go, which is impressive considering how many things have gone awry this season, namely the offensive ineptitude and the off-the-field incidents.
There’s no way Cleveland would even be sniffing the postseason without superstar third baseman Jose Ramirez, who is closing in on yet another 30-30 season and was recently given a ton of praise by Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter.
Reuter recently wrote an article ranking all the league’s third baseman, and he had Ramirez at the top of the list.
“José Ramírez remains baseball’s most underrated superstar. He has finished inside the top 10 in AL MVP voting seven times in the last eight years, including in the top five in five of those seasons, and he is two home runs shy of the third 30/30 season of his career. The 32-year-old has also developed into one of the best defensive third basemen in baseball, and his stellar offensive numbers are even more impressive under the lens of how little support he has in the Guardians lineup. Ramírez is top dog at third base until someone unseats him,” Reuter wrote.
Ramirez doesn’t get brought up much when discussing the best players in the game, but he is undoubtedly on a very short list after a decade of consistent excellence in all facets of the game.
Ramirez is two homers shy of reaching 30 home runs again, which would give him his third 30-30 season, including a second consecutive one after he fell just one dinger shy of 40-40 last year.
This offense has been stagnant for most of this season, but Ramirez has been the steadying force that has kept the lineup afloat.
The fact that he remains one of the best defenders at his position is the cherry on top, and there is no debate at the moment that he is the best third baseman in the league.
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