Guardians Insider Suggests Jose Ramirez Came Back Too Soon From Injury

Cleveland Guardians superstar Jose Ramirez wasn’t having a particularly good season leading up to June 13’s game. He entered that clash against the Detroit Tigers hitting .238/.339/.415 with 10 home runs, 24 stolen bases, and a 110 wRC+: not bad, but certainly not his best work.

That day, he broke his left hamate bone and was forced to miss the next five weeks. Ramirez returned on July 22 and has hit .227/.304/.287 with one homer, seven thefts, and a 65 ever since. He looks like a shell of himself.

Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes wonders if Ramirez came back too soon from an injury that could take much longer than five weeks to heal.

“Did he come back too soon? The stats say yes. The Guardians figured that whatever percentage of Ramírez they could get would be better than having nothing at all. But for those who have seen Ramírez at his best, this has been hard to watch,” Hoynes wrote.

It has been hard to watch at times. The injury completely took away his home run power, and it’s not like he has hit many doubles, either, except for that August 25 game in which he hit three.

That’s a common (and short-term, in most cases) consequence of hamate bone surgery: because of the long inactivity, the muscles and tendons in the wrist area lose strength, and power disappears for a few weeks or even months.

Eventually, it returns, but it’s fair to wonder how much of Ramirez’s struggles can be attributed to the injury and how much can be chalked up to the natural aging process of every hitter. After all, J-Ram is about to turn 34.

In his specific case, his stats definitely got worse after returning from the injury, so the wrist is mostly to blame. It remains to be seen if the organization can do something to help Ramirez during these tough times other than giving him a day off here and there.

It’s important to clarify that Ramirez and the Guardians opted to skip a rehab assignment in the minor leagues, which is obviously not ideal, as he didn’t have any games to get his rhythm and timing back.

The six-time Silver Slugger Award winner and seven-time All-Star still has a few games of the regular season left to show something at the plate. God knows the Guardians need him.