By now, the entire baseball universe is familiar with the fact Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez was one home run shy from joining a historic club last year.
The revered 40-40 club (at least 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in the same season) only has six members: Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Shohei Ohtani.
Ramirez hit 39 long balls and stole 41 bases in 2024.
He was this close to making MLB history.
If you are a Guardians fan still lamenting J-Ram’s lost chance, then the next video definitely isn’t for you.
Codify Baseball posted a compilation of multiple balls off Ramirez’s bat that looked like homers, but nearly missed.
“José Ramírez would have joined the elite 40-40 club last season if just one of these had been a home run,” they posted on X.
José Ramírez would have joined the elite 40-40 club last season if just one of these had been a home run. pic.twitter.com/vfBAWNidmE
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) January 31, 2025
Oof.
If only one of those balls had cleared the wall, we would be talking about the seventh 40-40 player in history.
You have balls bouncing off the wall, others caught at the warning track and, to make matters worse, several stolen homers by incredible leaping catches made by the fielders.
Some of these well-struck batted balls would have been home runs if they were hit in a different park.
It just wasn’t meant to be, but this video should be enough to make people realize just how close he was to completing an amazing accomplishment.
Ramirez is a truly special hitter and will try, once again, to join this particularly celebrated club in 2025.
He is slowly getting up there in age, but is still theoretically in his prime and is showing no signs of slowing down.
NEXT: Recently DFA'd Pitcher Will Test Free Agency Instead Of Returning To Guardians
