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Man, the guy must love (checks notes) Cleveland??
Yes
I think you should change your name to Mr. Guardian as the HOF is locked up now.
It’s so refreshing to see a player not look for every dollar. As well as he’s getting compensated, how much more could he have gotten in free agency? His financial sacrifices allows the team to at least theoretically spend elsewhere to improve the club.
House of Food? Yeah may wanna lock that up so he dont go large like Miggy
@Dumpster Divin Theo
He was an international signing so would it be IHOF?
I love how you said “theoretically” spend, as that perfectly captures the FO’s lack of commitment to investing in this club. So glad I’m not a fan of a team who only “theoretically” competes.
Must be they are still having nightmares about spending money on Edwin Encarnacion, what, 12 years ago?
If he retired today, he would be a borderline, below avg HoFer, but with a decent case. If he has another 2-3 good years, he likely will get in.
Check out the comps and the HoF monitor stats like JAWS on b ref.
top-10 in mvp votes for 6 straight years and 8 of the last 9. imo he’s already a no-brainer
It’s all going down at the International House of Pancakes where Dumpster Divin Theo will be inducted into the Hall of Fools.
I can’t recall but they only had to pay him 2 of the 3 years since they traded him before the 2019 season. I really think they still are recovering from that bit@## Rachel Phelps tried to sandbag the team so she could move them to Miami.
@Bucket Number Six Would the nickname Mr. Guardian be allowed, since there was actually once a player for the franchise who was so synonymous with them that the team was actually named after him?! In that sense, it’s hard for anyone other than Nap Lajoie to be considered the overall face of the entire franchise.
He already has a higher career WAR than Rolen.
Nap Lajoie retired well over 100 years ago, died almost 70 years ago, never played in the World Series, and the vast majority of baseball fans probably don’t know how to pronounce his last name.
Considering all of that, and the fact that the Cleveland franchise has only been the Guardians for four seasons, I think it’s more than OK to let Jose Ramirez be Mr. Guardian.
@Landirac:
The Indians were not named for a specific player. That tired story is complete bunk.
The Naps were named for Nap Lajoie.
Will take that and twice on Thursday so long as there are pierogi. Wait: that’s a quintessential Pittsburgh thing. What is Clevelands culinary dish again? Perhaps carbonated water with flaming cheetos on top?
Count me in St.No Saint. Especially if its one of the ones where Homer found powdered gravy in the parking lot
Measuring top 10s now? Headstone can read: participated in ball 6 straight years and 8 of the last 9. Sorta like Susan Luccio (that her name?) from TVland or the thankless mutt like Dachsund or Bassett Hound that never wins best of show at Westminster. Or a poor man’s Jamie Moyer.
Nap Lajoie would be so choice as team mascot. Hire an aging Steph Curry to switch sports a la MJ and have him close games. “It’s naptime” whenever he shuts the door on another Spyder winner.
Did Nap Lajoie draw his moniker for his penchant of stowing away for long stretches of the afternoon in secluded corners of Progressive field (the house that Baker built)? Or did the term Nap rise to prominence after he, entering the popular lexicon like Kleenex, ATM and fax.
Lucci
Nap Lajoie rhymes with beaujolais
They had a great deal before that would have ended just as age-related decline set in. Now they’ll be paying for his downside years in his mid- to late-30s, which will impact other decisions they now can’t make. Should have let the contract expire. If he loves Cleveland that much, he wasn’t going to leave anyway and they would have a better chances of assessing his decline.
Ramirez was underpaid all of his career (loyal to the Guardians) so I think the Guardians are ok overpaying him at the end of his career.
Clearly that’s the case, but it goes against how they operate. I almost wonder if Ramirez saw all the insane deals being given out this off season, realized he went from underpaid to insanely underpaid, and asked for an extension.
LordD99, I’m summarizing, but he’s come out and said he wants to spend his whole career in Cleveland and that the money isn’t a big deal because he’s already made enough for a lifetime. As a die hard Jim Thome fan, Jose easily surpassed Jim as my favorite guardian with that statement.
Was Jim Thome ever a Guardian?
I would imagine he and his accent realized while they would like more money from Cleveland, he didn’t want to do it in a way that hurt the team. With the upcoming 2027 CBA negotiations possibly changing deferrals, now was the best time to do this extension.
If he’s an average player for the last three years, his career value to the team fast exceeds what he’ll end up being paid.
Even during down years fans could but a ticket knowing they would see a star player who loved to play for them. That matters a lot to a fans and the teams finances as well. Well done on both sides.
Funny, I was wondering about this the other day, along with was Chipper Jones ever a Boston Beaneater?
Agent, not accent. Another win for autocorrect.
Autocorrect 54,592,414
Me 2
The deferred money should lower the yearly cost enough to make it worth the team’s while. 70% of the “new money” is deferred. Although I would bet it is spread over the whole contract. They essentially lowered their present costs. Hopefully they use that extra money on someone.
I was wondering how accents ended up in the discussion. : -)
Is there a no trade clause?
I just glanced but it sounds like he’s likely to retire (permanent IL) before the last couple years kick in
As you are a Dodgers fan, it is simply deferring correctness for you. until a later date.
“And with deferrals, the team will invest the principal over the terms and net millions in gains.” Is the assumption that they’ll invest in an ETF like VTI (the majority of the US equity market) that generally yields between 8-10% per year? Not jabbing, just curious what you think they’re investing in.
Nope White Sock and Philly
Yes still in contract.
No, Mikey. Sincerely, Brand
cashew, they have to invest in something with a guaranteed rate of return or GRR. The highest guaranteed rates are around 4% right now. If you know of one with a GRR (pun intended) that has an 8%+ yield, please share.
Doh! 🙂
The name changed. Time to get over it. It isn’t changing back.
What about when the Cleveland franchise was the SPIDERS!!!!!
“Yankees fan in Chicago” thx you so much for broadcasting your suave social skills and flair for expression, the way you felt compelled to share your fandom and your place of residence. You have clearly mastered each of the lessons on how to win friends and influence people. You are without doubt a national treasure. The world and this message board are truly a warmer place with your full participation. Don’t ever leave or take a bathroom break
Imagine if we could make the ability to think and write and speak coherently with proper grammar and spelling a prerequisite for using the internet. For sure, we would have never heard from a certain Yankees fan living in Chicago.
To be fair Carver, with those criteria there wouldn’t be a lot of Internet users, and social media would have never taken off.
“and social media would have never taken off”
You say that as if it would be a negative result.
I would love for social media to have had a shorter reach and impact on society.
Shorter reach: reminds me of friend of the family’s smart alecky kid who grew from brat to the shyster adult always talking about his big business ideas and bigger fortune but always managed to have alligator arms when it came time to settle the check
If we assume 10 year deferrals, then the extension comes to ~78mil in AAV dollars for 4 years, which isn’t bad despite the age. Cleveland doesn’t care about AAV, but it’s an approximation for how much they are actually paying, which is likely to be slightly less than the AAV estimate.
That said, the way everything is worded, it sounds like some of those deferrals will come from an adjustment of money already guaranteed, which means that he’s lowering the amount the team has to pay him over the next 3 years, which may open up the ability for Cleveland to spend that money elsewhere.
We really won’t know how good/bad this extension appears until the to deferral details come out.
I’m sure they ,just like the twins, will figure out ways to be just barely competitive enough to be knocked out of the playoffs by the Yankees every year
Not ideal, but it could be worse.
Mets spent ~440mil last season and didn’t even make the playoffs!
Doesn’t take much to win the central!
I think smaller market teams need to operate this way. Other players, including ones coming up thru the org are watching. Having a reputation for loyalty towards their players could help them retain players going forward, whereas if it came down to just money they’d be gone 100%
I don’t think he’ll decline. I compare him to
Adrian Beltre. Adrian was a stud who could’ve played a couple more seasons at a high level IMO.
@Lord. You sound like me talking to other Braves fans that on purely logical reasoning, Atlanta should let Acuna walk at the end of his contract if he has large dollar expectations like what we are seeing now. You are going to end up buying his least productive years.
We might have to see him give elite or near elite production for a couple years but speed is a big part of his game and he has a ligament surgery on both knees.
The deferrals take that into account. Starting at a 5.8 WAR baseline and factoring in MLB average age related decline, JRam should be a 2.4-1.6 WAR player from 2030-2032. The AAV with the deferrals is about $21 million out of pocket for the Guardians. He should earn that on the field until very near the end of this deal. What he doesn’t is paid in spades by the surplus early in the deal.
Those late years: a la Salad days or Miggy days. Thus the need for a HOF- house of food- next to the park.
Can’t believe nobody is complaining they’re
Deferring some of the money wonder why
@ThatsIT? It seems denial of obvious intellectual dissonance is quite popular.
Going for Naps WAR record.
Big hometown discount!
I would wager jose has never once been booed in cleveland by cleveland fans. I would wager he never will be. He is beloved.
Awwwwww sweet.
Yes, its a nice city to live.
Nice to see hes of the few who doesnt need ti make the most.
.
There are only a few players around the league that make me jealous as a Phillies fan. JRam is one of them. A superior all-around player; terrific teammate; consistently produces year to year and mostly stays on the field; and will be a rare HOF player in this generation that stayed with his small market city and took a significant haircut in order to do so. Happy for the Cleveland fan base.
—> Bader incoming
Dude loves Cleveland more than Drew Carey does
Or Baker ‘this is my house’ Mayfield
Dude just really loves going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Well, one can do worse than Cleveland. If I were an MLB player and they traded me to Minnesota, Baltimore, Detroit or probably 6-8 other cities, I’d retire.
Cleveland’s new motto: “home to Drew Carey, we put out the fire, and at least we’re not Detroit!!!”
Don’t overpay into age 39 though guards.
Ramirez is awesome. He’s knowingly provided so much value during his prime at a discount that paying him good chunk when wheels eventually fall off is fine. Good for Cleveland.
I wonder if part of the restructure adds money to the earlier years and lowers the salary in the later years
cwsOverhaul
Good for Cleveland.
======================
I think you meant good for ‘baseball’. Maybe even goof for America.
“Good” for America.
@joeB – I think that you were right the first time. Goof for America is considered to be WH policy.
7x in the top 6 MVP voting. 8x in top 10. He earned it.
It might not be the best move for the 2031 and 2032 teams, but it ensures he is a one team player who will proudly be the first Guardian player that goes into the HOF in a long time. And financially, even old JRam will still be the center of their marketing as he will be pushing for milestones at that point.
He’s one of the best players in the team’s history and loves playing there. He has already taken discounts in the past. I don’t think there’s a concern there
“Ramirez turned 33 last September but doesn’t appear to be slowing down.” Great as he is, give it, what, two to three years?
Ramirez had played at an MVP level through the entire contract. Regression merely puts him at replacement level.
33 is a splendid age for IFers to significantly decline.
Sounds like one of those Ed McMahon infomercial ads for Colonial Penn that come on, rouse you from your slumber, and make you realize damn it’s 125am and I overslept on the couch and missed my neighbor’s party and somehow there’s a Green Acres marathon running
Time to adjust the meds again.
I was thinking there might be noxious fumes in the dumpster and Theo should step back and take a breath of fresher air
Gotta say, I’ve never woken up at 1:25am and considered it oversleeping…
Good for Ramirez and Cleveland. You have to like someone staying with the same team their whole career, especially these days when the large markets buy up everyone.
So thats what cleveland has been doing this whole offseason. Congrats to the fans
This guy is so underrated in baseball, I know that sounds crazy but you never really hear him mentioned as one of the top premier players in the game of baseball on the national stage – the guy is a stud and I’m glad that they are coming together on a deal to keep him there until what’s likely the end of his career. It cool to see another person stay with one team for their career !!
He plays hard and sets the standard over there, That has a lot of value on a small market team that has roster turnover. At this point he looks like a HOF lock too.
Absolutely agree. He doesn’t garner much national attention from media or the fans, but the players know. The MLB players vote for the 2025 All Star game show that he is well respected. He got 746 votes from players for the 2025 All Star Game. Only behind Raleigh and Judge. Ra,ire’s is a stud that could shine on any team. He seems happy in Cleveland and probably taking less money to stay.
Ramirez*
While both things can be true, Ramirez made three crucial, unnecessary outs on the base paths in the final game of the wild card this past year.
So hard to get the well deserved recognition when Judge and Trout have run the league for his entire career.
Wow, a feel-good baseball story on a Saturday morning. Great news for the Guardians and baseball. Only real downside is that Ramirez has to live in Cleveland six months out of the year
If he had a problem with that, he wouldn’t have taken less money to stay in CLE.
Spoken by someone who’s never set foot in Cleveland.
Cleveland is a great place to be from April to September. It’s this time of year that you don’t want to be there if you don’t like cold and snow. I think he returns to the DR in the offseason, so that is not an issue for him.
Plus some crazy people really like the cold and snow. For a SoCal guy like me it is definitely weird, but there are people that do.
Bucs- Cleveland gets a horrible rep and most of it is just regurgitated schemas of the city without ever going there. Just like every city, some parts aren’t the greatest and some parts are amazing, and if Jram and his family like it there- why hate?
Cleveland: “at least we’re not Detroit!”
That’s super!
BuT tHeY’rE rUiNiNg BaSeBaLl WiTh DeFeRrEd MoNeY
1st ballot hall of famer, glad to see there guys like Ramirez and Judge stay with one team for their careers
I think a more apt comparison would be Trout. Both Ramirez and Trout have spent their whole careers playing in low expectation environments and I imagine that has been, to some extent, by design. Not everyone likes the spotlight and the pressures and stresses of expectation. Some guys just want to have fun, play a little ball, collect their check and go home.
That’s, no doubt, a large factor in Jose taking such a major discount. He’s effectively paying to not be bothered too much by the media or the massive obnoxious fan bases of the larger franchises.
Mike Trout has played 3 postseason games in his career, Ramirez has played 45.
True, but neither franchise has any real expectations of success. Getting to the playoffs is the benchmark. When they miss, there’s very little call for change. No one is overly upset when the season’s over at the end of September because no one expects a title.
That’s partly why Ramirez will be a legend in Cleveland. He’s a great player who spent his whole career there and got 45+ bonus playoff games that weren’t expected.
Canuckleball so you’re saying that he’s only good cause he plays for Cleveland?? Cleveland faces the same pitchers as the other teams
JFC
NO.
For the hard of reading, I’m saying he is a great player who plays in a low pressure environment. Many guys who become legends do so because of the various titles they helped their teams win. He won’t win any titles but will be a legend because of the low expectations that he exceeded. That his teams won’t win any titles is not his fault, but rather the fault of a limp ownership that won’t give him enough support.
The original poster compared him with Judge, who plays in the highest of pressurized environments.
Ramirez could easily have ended up a legend with the Yankees or Dodgers, but there’s a lot of attention that comes with that and some guys just don’t want that.
Seattle’s GM said the goal is to win 87-89 games for a solid decade. That puts you in the postseason almost every year with a chance to win it, and without maximum spending and the contention window opening and closing. Social media crapped all over him for not chasing greatness, but that is one line of GM thinking. Cleveland does well to achieve that, and they almost won it all in 2016.
Judge a ‘legend’?
I remember the old days when Yankee fans insisted on judging success on championships. Amazing how things have changed.
You’re really reaching, Canuckleball. Plenty of players of legendary status don’t end up winning championships, and it has little to nothing to do with the “pressurized environment” they play in. All of these guys are on the world’s biggest stage already. Does playing in larger media markets mean more press? Sure. But Judge still doesn’t have a championship to show for his efforts.
Both players are leaders and legends in their own rights. Ramirez placed his team and his dedication to an organization over a paycheck, not winning. Judge went to free agency, placing his paycheck over his team and organization. Neither action is incorrect. But your assertion is.
Willie Mays and Hank Aaron who most would agree are “legendary” baseball players, each won one World Series title.
Even if you’re a fervent Yankee hater, it’s pretty easy to recognize what Judge is accomplishing with or without a boatload of titles.
By the way, Luis Sojo has five rings and Johnny Murphy, an old Yankee pitcher with a total of 93 wins,has seven rings.
It’s the player, not the ring count.
Exactly. Mike Timlin won four World Series championships during his 18-season MLB career. He earned two rings as a pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993, and two rings with the Boston Red Sox in 2004 and 2007. An absolutely solid reliever, but a legend? Not even close.
Good.
Great to see honestly. In this day of most stars leaving teams I love when you do see this. Anti-Borasing (Vlad notwithstanding, that was a rare awesome win against the Boras).
Not sure why Boras needs to be pulled into this discussion other than to take a shot at him.
Why???? I mean I have to explain why? LOL Come on now.
Boras clients have signed a number of extensions. Also, it takes two parties to cause a player to leave. Too many teams don’t want to pay up for talent, preferring to pocket the money.
Salzilla why even bring up boras in a story that doesn’t involve him? It would be nice if the tool could be left out, but some moron always brings him up
Rude.
Moron? Wow my comment was a compliment to Ramirez and dudes are out here defending Boras. And then you come and offend me for no reason, a guy that comments daily here and is respectful of his fellow fans? Yeah, no, man. I’ll do myself a favor and mute you. I don’t have time for that.
Boras clients sign extensions at about the same rate as MLB players as a whole. Boras superstar clients rarely do. The only thing most people see is the handful of superstar Boras clients that realize they will make a large amount more money by not taking the team friendly extension and decide to bet on themselves to both stay healthy and play well to get the additional and generational wealth.
People seem to both love and hate when players bet on themselves. Personally, I love it when players are willing to put security on the line for a possibility of a payday what will set up their family for multiple generations.
Guardians doing the right thing for their superstar player. Kudos to ownership for this.
Great to see the extremely rare player not be a mercenary. Compare the stats of Ramirez to Kyle Tucker, one of the most overpaid players in sports
Tucker has a career OPS+ of 140 and Ramirez checks in at 131. Tucker is a better hitter. Ramirez gets the edge overall because of baserunning and defensive value.
Well they both have identical career WAR/162 at 5.8. Tucker’s career OPS is slightly higher, with a bigger gap in OPS+ once you adjust for park factor. Ramirez brings more defensive value of course.
So I guess the result of this exercise is that they’re almost identical players from a value standpoint even though they have different skill sets. Both are clearly two of the top 10 or so players in the sport
Not sure what WAR you’re using (assuming bWAR?), but Jose Ramirez has averaged 5.8 fWAR per 162 games while Tucker has averaged 5.35.
More importantly, Ramirez has been better at consistently remaining on the field, playing in 94.1% of possible games as opposed to 82.6% for Tucker (only counting seasons where they have been full time starters; 10 & 6 seasons respectively). Staying healthy for an additional 11.5% of games played is of significant value for star players like these two.
Why would anyone use anything other than bWAR? fWAR uses expected stats, not real ones.
This guy loves Cleveland. It can either turn out well, or bad. Hopefully for the Guardians it isn’t the next Jose Altuve, though Altuve could still bounce back.
He’s already earned his career money at this point. He could have went free agent and had this money, but he stayed.
I’m glad Cleveland took care of him. One of the better baseball marriages in the last couple decades.
Doubt it, he isn’t going to be very good in three years. The next big contract wasn’t coming in free agency. Good for him to get an extension with Cleveland, now when all is said and done he will have been paid fairly by the Guardians.
Congratulations to Tim Anderson’s father.
As a White Sox fan, I approve this comment!
^^^^^THIS^^^^^
Jose Ramirez,
6 tool player.
Why hasn’t this comment received more likes? Wish I could like it twice, its that good.
@
CravenMoorehead
Really did LOL.
Think he has a chance to join the 400/400 club before his career ends?
I think he has a pretty decent chance of 400 homers, but if he falls short it’ll be in the stolen bases. He hasn’t shown any sign yet but at some point you have to assume he’ll slow down and steal fewer bases.
Yes, 120 more of each is very possible
Speaks volumes of his character and of the organization.
Future Hall of Famer!
He’s going to finish his Hall of Fame career as a Cleveland Guardian, that’s pretty cool for the fanbase.
Best transaction this offseason. Love when a player and organization value each other so much like this.
No thanks.
Great…now go pay Kwan
Take notes Atlanta, Get Ronald locked up! So happy for the Guardians and Ramirez.
Build his statue now. I’m so serious
Well deserved JRam rocks as a player and a real team guy. Cleveland is lucky to have him. Guys like him and Clayton Kershaw who stay with one team their whole career are rare these days.
Consummate team player. Personally not a Guardian’s fan, but this guy is a model ballplayer and you can’t help but root for him. Congrats to Guards and their fans.
This is what baseball needs more of, stars staying with their teams. Free agency fatigue is real
Surprisingly putting up best #s of his life in his 30s
Looking like a 1st ballot hof’er
This is great for Cleveland and great for baseball This is the type of player I’d buy tickets for to see his last game in NY. Every team in BB should be preparing farewell gifts. This should be epic.
Wait… I thought only the Dodgers had the ability to defer?! Cleveland must have reverse-engineered their secret recipe. What a momentous day for the Guardians.
About time Cleveland actually keeps one of their star players for life
Respect for loving a team and city so much you’re willing to play your entire career there. It happens very rarely in today’s day and age. He will be a hall of famer and beloved in Cleveland his entire life.
I’d love to see him finish and start his MLB career with the same team. But also would be thrilled if his final season was with the cross state Reds.
Deferred oh my they are Ruining Baseball
They might as well, the big boys get away with it.
It’s almost like every team could’ve been doing this all along
Not every team can defer 68 million a year for one guy, not to mention a multitude of others.
And why is that? What’s stopping them?
@Mr.Rickey
In order to give a player a deferred 68mil contract it requires the team to place a corresponding amount of money into an account which is audited by the MLBPA at the time the money is earned (not paid).
So if a team wanted to sign a player to a 1 year 70mil contract, with 68mil deferred, they would have to spend ~46mil out of pocket that year. That’s a ton of money for most teams. So it’s really just a question of why the Mets and Yankees aren’t doing this more.
Fair enough.
But a lot can and didn’t. Now they should. And are.
And Shohei’s 68m isn’t quite the same. HE made that offer to all teams, and if they weren’t smart enough to know how much a unicorn is worth having that’s on those other teams
@Marcus
Shohei did not offer to all teams, he chose to join the Dodgers and was willing to take a deferred contract rather than ~460/10 without deferments. At no point was 700/10 on the table without deferments. I’m sure several other teams would have happily taken that deal, but they were not offered (possible the Angels had a chance, but doubtful).
And it’s widely speculated that Ohtani was happy to take a near fully differed contract in order to dodge income taxes – but we won’t know for several more years. His high salary in endorsements also played a part. As you said, he’s a unicorn and shouldn’t be thought of in a similar fashion to other large contracts.
Legend
How about getting some help around him in the lineup.
Cleveland is an underrated city, for those of you who’ve never visited.
Good for them, and good for him. I wish more small/mid market teams had guys like this who actually stuck around.
It’s rated #6 for murders, so there’s that.
@phuckinphill
I caught a couple of games at Municipal Stadium back in the day. Always fun. Is that river still on fire?
Buddy, get some new material. River caught on fire in 1969. Carson used this line in the 1970s. Hasn’t been relevant in decades.
It’s not hard to come up with something else (it’s Cleveland after all, it ain’t hard) Unless you like being lazy?
In the meantime @NoSaint, come check out the Cuyahoga River and educate yourself.
Great player. Love that he’ll spend his entire career with Cleveland.
But that’s a lot of money for those age seasons.
How dare Cleveland use deferrals. Only the big bad Dodgers can do that!
Cool to see a HOF spend his whole career in one place, but kind of weird timing for Cleveland? They already had him locked up for 3 more years until he’s 36, and it would probably be pretty cheap to keep him around when he’s 37 and presumably not very good anymore. For a team that doesn’t spend money, it seems like an unnecessary use of precious resources
Money, shmoney. His extension is more than paid for by the Mets, Dodgers and other big market clubs.
At least the Guardians are doing the right thing here and rewarding a loyal and great performer. As a Mets fan, I am an admirer of his.
They pay less than half of their payroll in house so I am glad it is going to JRam.
He’ll be in Anaheim once he hits 40.
Wow, did not expect him to spend his entire career there, respect to him and the Guardians. One of the best players of his era.
Absolutely no demeaning of Pete Rose intended…
But Jose Ramirez is Pete Rose with more talent.
He’s like Pete Rose…minus Tim Donaghy and Wander Franco.
Ramirez is getting four more years at $106 million, less the discount from the deferrals, which is probably substantial. Bear in mind that while there aren’t many players better than Tucker, Ramirez is one of them and Tucker just signed for four years at about $230 million, with the contract costing his team twice that with comp balance payments. Yes they are a different four years: Tucker in his late twenties, early thirties and Ramirez in his late thirties. But Ramirez looks like he’ll retain his value for some time and, even if he regresses, he is the face of the franchise who will put fans in the seats even if he is reduced to a productive DH (Tucker will never be the face of any franchise). I have a feeling that the last four years of Ramirez’ new contract are going to look at least as good as the last four years of Alonso’s and Schwarber’s contracts. Hopefully, the deferred money will result in Cleveland spending to put a better team around Ramirez, although I kind of doubt it — this is a team that has talked about dumping Kwan, who probably would go for at least $20 million AAV on the open market and is making $7 million this season and under team control for the next. Ramirez’ loyalty to Cleveland has cost him a lot in terms of dollars, recognition and post-season play. He is likely to join Ted Williams, Ernie Banks and Griffey Jr. as Hall of Famers who never palyed in a World Series. Makes me sad.
You’re comparing apples and oranges. Tucker was a free agent on the open market, whereas Ramirez is a player that was still under contract for 3 more seasons
Ted Williams played in the 1946 World Series vs. the Cardinals.
And Jose played in the 2016 Fall Classic.
All any of us have on earth when we die is our legacy. Ramirez does amazing things for their community. They’ll be putting up statues of Ramirez in Cleveland. Maybe Tucker can buy one, but nobody else will be.
He played in the World Series in 2016. Did you mean never win a World Series?
Great move to not extend Caminero, Rays. Now it’s going to come with a premium thanks to the benchmark this Ramirez deal will set. I hate being a Rays fan!
The most selfless player of this generation. I give him alot of credit.
With some of the saved money go get Bader for CF
Thinking the exact same thing.
Very cool for Cleveland fans
José showing he is really committed to having his October‘s free of baseball
Jose has played in Octobers, including in the 2016 World Series.
Yeah, I wish Cleveland made the postseason every once in a while.
I actually like it when smaller teams lock up franchise players, even though the back end of the contract is usually an albatross.
Still a team friendly deal and if he doesn’t age well, it will still be okay in a karmic sense, because he is underpaid compared to others with his statistics. I wonder how the MLBPA feels about this.
The union should care a million times more about what makes the individual happy than they do, but they never will. If a player takes top dollar elsewhere and it turns into a disaster, the union won’t give a rip because he helped advance their agenda.
They won’t feel anything about it bc MLBPA would never stop a player from doing what HE WANTS to do.
Not a team firenly deal, vast overpay.
Personally this was a stupid move cause he is 33 yrs old and still has 3 yrs remaining. Ramirez will be close to toast by his age 36 season so paying him another 4 yrs extension into age 39 is a waste of money!
Sacrificed upfront money for long term money. What’s stupid about that for either. Haven’t been around this game very long have you?
That’s really only feasible through age 36 or 37 if even that long for most players. After that, even star players are expected to take significant pay cuts until they eventually retire. It’s just that some teams occasionally decide to stupidly defy this natural process.
In this case, though, it might be worth it to them if they expect to need to rebuild again by then anyway, especially if the money they’re saving now is reinvested in the roster and actually helps them win a World Series soon.
But with Cleveland and Ramirez its not just about production.
There is an unexplainable connection between the player, the team, the organization, and the player.
@CATS44
That’s the thing most people are missing in this comment section. Guardians need to a star player to market their team around long-term. It’s about brand-building as well.
True, but they probably could’ve resigned him anyway for much less at the end of his current contract (or shortly before it would’ve ended).
@Lanidrac
Sure they could have but it’s about locking in a legacy player who is going to lead in almost every franchise offensive category by the time he retires.
For perspective, Ramirez will have signed 16 seasons of extensions for $271M with $70M deferred, He could’ve doubled his career earnings had he decided to go after money. And you still want to nickel-and-dime the guy that makes that type of commitment to your franchise?
@YankeesBleacherCreature
Like Tony Gwynn. He had plenty of opportunities to go into FA and make a bundle. He chose to stay with the Padres.
that’s a way of Cleveland saying thank you for playing your prime years for a third of your market value.
Amazing. They should be putting up statues of Ramirez in Cleveland
As awesome as this is by itself.. since this is ultimately deferring some of his nearterm salary, I cannot help but wonder if another extension is on the horizon.
Mutual loyalty. Gotta respect.
Only 500K bonus for MVP win…? That would be a massive WAR season contributing a handful of team wins. Surely you can do better than that.
You are aware that most players don’t get award bonuses in their contracts at all, aren’t you?
If he does win, there will be other prizes he’ll get just for winning the award beyond just his contract bonus.
He’s a first ballot hall of famer and they should build a statue of him when he’s done
Good for him for sticking with his team. Now he just need to smoke more. He’s the modern day version of Glenallen Hill.
It’s weird that MLBTR will consistently refer to Paul Goldschmidt and even Nolan Arenado as a “future Hall of Famer” when Ramirez is obviously better than the latter and will very likely end up with a better career than the former.
I don’t think they can afford an editor. Also, their expedited type of re-reporting makes editing an issue. I do wish they would go back and edit occasionally after posting though as frequently their columns have numerous factual and link-based errors.
Ramirez and Arenado have very similar WAR totals in their careers to date. Ramirez is just probably a better player right now and moving forward.
But yes, Ramirez is just as much of a future Hall of Famer as the other two.
Ramirez and Arenado have been in the league for essentially the same timespan, and Ramirez is two years younger, so he’ll doubtlessly end up with more WAR since he’s still producing at a high level, assuming health. Arenado is on the downslope of his career while Ramirez is still in his prime. Arenado has the defensive edge for sure, but Ramirez is no slouch at third either.
Arenado was putting up all his numbers and getting MVP votes with Colorado, except for a year in St. Louis. Ramirez was doing that while playing half his games in normal air. As such, he has the OPS+ edge. Just a better hitter.
These deferred contracts are ruining baseball…
This guy is far from good-looking but not so far from Hall of Fame.
Cleveland doesn’t deserve this guy
Riiiiiight…he should be playing in classy New York, where he’d be appreciated when he does well and booed heartily when he doesn’t…
Nice to know there is at least 1 baseball player not guided by greed.
This team is owned by billionaires. Ridiculous they need to worry about cash flows. If the team loses money they can just deduct it from their other winnings…..
Operate a baseball franchise and lets us know how that goes.
He’s not wrong. These owners treat teams like investments instead of a group of players who play a game and compete for a title. There is no sense of any owner or group of owners who are even trying to win a title other than the Dodger$, Met$, Yankee$, Padre$, and a few other clubs, and while some might have a smaller advantage due to market size and TV networks, there is no reason any team in any city can’t go for broke for 3-4 seasons and try to get a good group of players together no matter how much they cost in order to win a championship. Remember, billionaire owners don’t go broke or bankrupt. Jorge78 is right. They will either make it up with some other investment or thing they own, or it won’t effect them at all because they are too well off to even care. Pay the players!
That’s not how it works. Owning a pro sports team IS and always has been an investment! No owner aside from rare exceptions like maybe Cohen with the Mets right now will ever spend out of his/her own pocket to chase a Championship. Even the Dodgers are only able to spend as much as they are because they still make a decent profit on top of it (and because they’ve put a lot of deferred money in some of their deals).
Clearly Karensjer has advanced degrees in everything except how the real world works.
As a Royals fan, I’m not thrilled.
Including the criteria of only playing for one franchise, Jose is on a short-list of three (in my opinion) of the Greatest of his Generation!
Solid deal for Cleveland. Clearly this player values stability over maxing out his possible career earnings
Meantime yankees sign Coleman
Most underpaid star in baseball. I hope he is happy sticking with one team and knowing what his future looks like. There is a lot of value in that. They should put a statue of him outside the stadium with all the money they have saved.
JRam could’ve easily followed Lindor’s same path out of Cleveland and cashed out. Mad respect to the man for not being greedy and chasing every last dollar out there. He knows he’s already got more money than he could ever possibly need. W.
Very happy to see the Guardians extend JRam so he can complete his (HOF?) career having played with just one team.
This guy is more loyal to his organization than Giannis.
Great. Now do Kwan!
given that the dolans stopped giving players multiyear extensions to players over 32 after the lessons learned from the swisher/bourn fiasco it’s abundantly clear that they intend to sell long before that contract becomes the albatross it’s destined to become. and all the CLE fans who’ve wanted the dolans to be gone will get what they deserve much like the browns fans who wanted lerner to sell. has haslem gotten *anything* right yet?
I heard an interview with Tom Hamilton a few months ago that Cleveland has only played in 25 games that did not have playoff implications since 2020. A lot of that has to do with this guy. Congrats, Jose. Congrats to a small market team!
Amazing how a little guy from the DR can become a legend in Northeast Ohio
Good for Mr. Ramirez and family. Might want to try boxing and give it a shot, I’ve seen your jab connect and sit down Mr. Anderson formerly of w.sox. after baseball of course.
JOSE, JOSE, JOSE, JOSE, JOSE, JOSE!!!
As a Brewer fan I am jealous. He is Cleveland’s Robin Yount. Wish we could still keep the guys we develop.
Good for the Indians. I’m glad to see a player of this caliber stay, and stay with a smaller market team
Guardians*
*Indians
*Spiders
I suppose if they expect to need to rebuild again anyway by the back half of this new extension, it’s worth it to them to go for it now while cementing Ramirez’s legacy with the team.
Otherwise, this is probably another ill-fated later-career extension that eventually is really going to tie up their finances for someone who will most likely be a heavily declining player in his late 30’s, and then significant dead money for several years after that.
300+ comments. I take it this article is not new.
This is great for the Guardians, Ramirez, and for fans everywhere, Great player, maybe HOF, and I am glad to see him finish out his career where it started.
Cards fan here. Love this. HOF’er
By far my favorite MlB player. Good for him. Good for Cleveland long term?
The business end of it is a bit confusing considering they spend on nothing else.
But he is going to the HOF, and he is the face of the franchise.
You could do worse than an aging Jram in 2030 I guess.
This guy is just the best. Real nice move by Cleveland here to give some back to the guy carrying the franchise for such an extended time.
Seems weird to give him an extension when they had him locked up to a friendly contract for the next 3 years through age 35. They get a little salary relief in the short term but could potentially be screwing themselves when he starts declining.
Deferred money!!! Oh no! The Dodgers are ruining baseball! Oh wait this another team deferring… oh. Well, the Dodgers are still ruining baseball waaaa waaaa
miken, His disadvantage is a lack of brain cells. Had to mute him and unfortunately all of your answers to his insanity disappeared as well.
This man is going to deliver a World Series to Cleveland mark my words. He’s unstoppable.
I am glad Jose signed. Here is something nobody else has pointed out…
His present day salary is now down to 15mil. That makes the Guards payroll for 2026 at or under 70 million.
The deferred money will come after the Dolans have sold.
Not everything looks as good as it sounds.
Ban test ……1…..2……3….
Woo hoo. Foppert lives !
Hey Carver. Nice chat. Good luck.
It seems like it’s pretty close to fair market value for what a 33-year-old player with his track record would command on the open market. Obviously there is substantial risk that those seasons in his late-30s don’t provide sufficient value when he eventually moves off 3B, but that is a problem for another day.
I realize most people won’t care like this stat nerd does, but it is interesting to me that Ramirez has a chance to retire with the highest WAR in a Cleveland uniform in history. That would mean above Lajoie, Speaker and Feller.
He’s not getting to 80 bWAR, which is what it would take to pass Lajoie. Not in today’s fast, faster, fastest game.
Look at all the HOFers who crashed and burned between 31 and 35, and JR would have to have a gentle decline through at least age 38 in order to add another 22 bWAR over the next six seasons.
Don’t know if they had some sort of handshake deal from a while back, but on a strictly $$$ / WAR this latest extension rates to go badly.