At 31 years old, Cleveland Guardians star Jose Ramirez is still in his prime.
However, as hard to believe as it might sound, he has been a major leaguer for 10 years.
Time flies, but 10 years of Ramirez?
We didn’t see that one coming.
He made his MLB debut before his 21st birthday, in September 2013.
After modest performances from 2013-15, Ramirez made his unexpected breakout in 2016 with a .825 OPS in 152 games.
He had 46 doubles that year, and they would slowly start to convert into home runs as Ramirez learned to control the barrel of the bat and take advantage of his fly ball and pull rates.
Still, those 2013-15 years helped him learn and adjust.
You know he has been a major leaguer for a long time when you realize, thanks to Always the Jake on Twitter, that he shared the same clubhouse as some players who have been retired for a long, long time.
“Jose Ramirez has been around longer than you think. He once played on the same team as Jason Giambi, Justin Masterson, and Chris Perez,” they tweeted.
Jose Ramirez has been around longer than you think.
He once played on the same team as Jason Giambi, Justin Masterson, and Chris Perez. pic.twitter.com/osCEB92KLf
— Always the Jake (@JacobsFieldRBW) January 17, 2024
Giambi’s last two seasons in MLB were with the Guardians, in 2013 and 2014.
Masterson, who retired in 2015, spent multiple years in Cleveland, from 2010 to 2014.
Reliever Chris Perez played for the Guardians between 2010 and 2013.
Ramirez shared a team with all of them when we didn’t have a clue he would be arguably the most influential Guardian of the last six or seven years.
Yes, he has been around for longer than we anticipated, but he remains a force, a perennial All-Star, and the best player on the Guardians roster.
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