The Cleveland Guardians are a talented baseball team. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have come as far as they did, reaching their second American League Championship Series in three seasons.
However, they are not without flaws. Their offense can be streaky, and the rotation has question marks beyond Gavin Williams and Parker Messick. Their biggest weakness, however, is their over-reliance on Jose Ramirez.
It has been the case with this team for years. Ramirez has been one of the game’s most underrated superstars and has carried the Guardians for a decade.
Injuries and natural decline affected his numbers in the 2026 regular season, and the team was able to rally around him and secure a place in October. Once there, Ramirez caught fire and was the main reason why Cleveland eliminated the Chicago White Sox in the AL Division Series.
J-Ram was also excellent in the first three games of the AL Championship Series vs. the Tampa Bay Rays, helping Cleveland take a 2-1 lead. However, he went cold in the last three contests, all losses for the Guardians.
Once again, the Guardians showed that when Ramirez isn’t at his best, they have a hard time winning key games.
“He’s still one of the best players in baseball. But Cleveland’s offense still leans on him too heavily, and the limitations of that approach showed when his bat cooled in the second half of the series,” Paul Hoynes and Joe Noga said.
Ramirez hit .278/.409/.778 with a double, a triple, and two home runs in the series against the White Sox. Without his resurgence in the final three games, Cleveland would have been eliminated very early.
In the ALCS vs. the Rays, Ramirez racked up seven hits. Six of them came in the first three games, though, where Cleveland won two. In the final three, he went 1-for-11, and the Guardians didn’t win again.
The kids are ready to take over the Guardians, led by Messick, Chase DeLauter, and Travis Bazzana. This team, however, is still led by Ramirez. He’s still the heartbeat of the organization, but they need to find ways to score when their superstar isn’t performing.
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