Jose Ramirez has spent the better part of a decade as the most consistent star in Cleveland sports, and that body of work just earned him a spot among the city’s elite across every major sport. Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter put together a Mt. Rushmore for 33 of the biggest sports cities in the country, limiting the selections to accomplishments from the 2000 season onward and only crediting what a player did while wearing that city’s uniform.
Cleveland’s four spots went to LeBron James, Joe Thomas, and Myles Garrett alongside Ramirez, a group that spans three different franchises and multiple generations of Cleveland sports. For Ramirez, the honor is a reflection of a career that has been defined far more by steady excellence than by hardware.
Reuter’s writeup made a point of highlighting just how often Ramirez has been in the MVP conversation despite never actually winning the award.
“Despite never taking home the hardware, RamÃrez has finished in the top 10 in AL MVP voting eight times in the last nine years. He has three 30/30 seasons on his resume and has quietly piled up 60.1 career WAR, which stands 16th all-time among third basemen,” Reuter wrote.
That resume includes three 30/30 seasons and eight top 10 finishes in AL MVP voting over the last nine years, numbers that place him in rare company at his position regardless of era. Ramirez has done all of it while playing his entire career in Cleveland, never chasing a bigger market or a larger contract, which only adds to how the fan base views his place in franchise history. Being grouped alongside James, Thomas, and Garrett puts him in the same breath as an NBA champion and two Hall of Fame-caliber football players, which says plenty about how his contributions have aged.
Ramirez continues to add to that case in real time, even as he works his way back from a hamate fracture that has kept him out of Cleveland’s lineup in recent weeks. Once he returns, he will look to add to a season that already has him firmly in the middle of the Guardians lineup during a tight division race. His place on this list is a reminder that his impact on Cleveland sports stretches well beyond just this season or even this decade.
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