The Cleveland Guardians don’t have much star power. However, they do have one of the best players in baseball.
Year in and year out, Jose Ramirez gives the team some of the most consistent performances in the game. He’s a perennial MVP candidate, even if he has never won the award.
That’s why insider Ken Rosenthal doesn’t believe Ramirez is underrated, but that the Guardians star is “underappreciated.”
“I wanna talk about Jose Ramirez. Here’s a guy that we often refer to as underrated. I don’t know that underrated is the right way to look at Jose Ramirez anymore. He’s not underrated, but is he underappreciated? I would suggest that he definitely is underappreciated. Here’s a guy who finished third in the MVP voting. That was his sixth top-5 finish in his career. This is just a really good player. He is definitely on a Hall of Fame track. No third baseman has ever reached 300 home runs and 300 steals for his career. All of these things kind of recommend Jose Ramirez as a Hall of Fame player. Underappreciated? Certainly,” Rosenthal said.
That might be the most accurate way to describe Ramirez. Few would argue that he’s one of the best players in the game, so it’s not like people don’t know who he is. Even so, it feels like fans don’t necessarily understand the type of impact he’s had on this organization.
There’s a strong chance that Ramirez will go down as the greatest player in franchise history once it’s all said and done. He certainly has everything it takes to retire near the top of every major statistical category.
Though he’s 33 years old, he proved that he can still put a team on his shoulders. While he may not have won MVP, he was arguably the most valuable player on any team. He led a team with little offense to the playoffs and a division-winning comeback that was unprecedented in MLB history.
Ramirez isn’t going to retire any time soon. Yet, people should appreciate it while he’s still out there, before it’s too late.
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