If the Cleveland Guardians are going to win the AL Central for a third year in a row, they can’t do it without superstar third baseman Jose Ramirez being a huge part of the equation. He has been the heart and soul of this team for over a decade and recently returned from a broken hamate bone to help this team get back in first place, but the losses keep piling up and Cleveland has now found itself in fourth place in the division as it welcomes the San Diego Padres to town for a weekend series.
Unfortunately, Ramirez is having the worst year of his career with just a .715 OPS through 90 games. It’s rare that he is a reason for the offense struggling, but it’s impossible to ignore that notion these days as one insider recently raised an uncomfortable question about the Guardians third baseman.
Joe Noga of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast and Cleveland.com recently wrote about Ramirez’s struggles and raised the question of whether or not Ramirez can be relied upon the rest of the way as a sure thing in this lineup.
“Has [Jose Ramirez] turned into, you know, a big question mark rather than the, the one sure thing that the, the Guardians can rely on?” Noga said.
Hand injuries can be tricky, and while Ramirez deserves credit for fighting his way back from the hamate fracture in a timely matter, it’s not uncommon for injuries like that to result in a decline in the power department. He has just ten home runs and is homering just once every 32.9 at-bats, which would is by far his lowest rate since 2016.
Ramirez is hitting just .207 with no extra-base hits in 17 games since coming back from the injury, but manager Stephen Vogt doesn’t sound concerned and believes his star is starting to round into form. Hopefully he is right, because this lineup can’t get the job done without him.
If Steven Kwan can resurrect his career the way he has over the past month, Ramirez can too. Hopefully he is still just knocking off some rust and can start looking like the guy he has always been down the stretch so the Guardians can chase down the Chicago White Sox and get back to the playoffs.
NEXT: Stephen Vogt Backs Struggling Superstar Amid Rough Stretch
