Guardians Star Named Among MLB’s Best Players

Age is just a number, right?

This week, the folks at Bleacher Report prepared an interesting piece: identifying the best player in MLB at every specific age. For example, they had top shortstop prospect Konnor Griffin as the best 20-year-old, Detroit Tigers rising star Kevin McGonigle as the best 21-year-old, and so on.

The Cleveland Guardians are represented in the piece by none other than star third baseman Jose Ramirez. As you probably can expect, he is the best of the 33-year-old players in baseball at the moment.

Joel Reuter wrote nothing but good things about the future Hall of Fame candidate, who is still proving he is in his prime. He beat out supremely talented players such as Kyle Schwarber, Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, and Manny Machado to get the nod.

“The perpetually underrated J-Ram has finished in the top 10 in AL MVP voting eight times in the last nine years, including back-to-back 30-homer, 40-steal campaigns in 2024 and 2025. He has quietly put himself on a Hall of Fame trajectory if he can string together a few more elite-level seasons. He is showing no signs of slowing down in any aspect of the game,” Reuter wrote.

Right now, Ramirez is second among Guardians’ position players in fWAR with 1.1, and his 115 wRC+ suggests he is merely rounding into form after a quiet start to the season. He already has six home runs and 12 stolen bases, and April isn’t even over.

He seems destined to flirt with another 30-30 campaign and, possibly, fulfill his dream of a 40-40 one. That’s some incredible production for a 33-year-old, especially in the stolen bases department.

Ramirez is striking out just 13 percent of the time, and he keeps showing he combines power with contact as well as anyone in the circuit.

He also remains an elite defender at the hot corner and one of the most intelligent players in the game. His ultimate goal, however, is to take the Guardians into the World Series again and win it.

The Guardians should be showing a bit more aggressiveness in the trade market to surround Ramirez with the necessary talent to get the team over the hump and take advantage of what is left of his prime.