The Cleveland Guardians don’t play in a big market.
They don’t make headlines very often, and they certainly don’t have the platform teams like the New York Yankees do.
That’s why Jose Ramirez will most likely have to do twice as much as any other player to finally win AL MVP.
However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve it.
Insider Paul Hoynes recently made a strong MVP case for the Guardians’ All-Star.
“But if you took Ramirez away from the Guardians, where would they be? They’re not running down the [Detroit] Tigers and coming back from a 15.5-game deficit. They’re not winning their second straight AL Central Division. It’s just not happening,” Hoynes said.
If using the actual definition of “most valuable,” there’s arguably no player who’s more valuable to his team than Ramirez.
He’s not the most vocal player in the game, and he’s never going to campaign for himself.
But, from that perspective, it’s easy to think that he had a bigger impact on his team than Cal Raleigh did on the Seattle Mariners or Aaron Judge did on the Yankees.
The Guardians’ lineup had virtually no firepower whatsoever, and the team trailed the Tigers by as many as 11 games in September.
Ramirez continues to post MVP-caliber numbers, and he almost single-handedly carried his team’s underwhelming offense again.
He’s shown no signs of slowing down, and he should continue to be a perennial MVP candidate for years to come.
Hopefully, he will finally win the award one day, although, given the flashy lights focused on other players, that doesn’t sound likely right now.
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