Cleveland Indians: Jose Ramirez Tribe’s only hope in All-Star ballot update

Jose Ramirez is only hope for Cleveland Indians in All-Star ballot update

Earlier this week on June 14 the first update for All-Star Game fan voting was released and fans of the Cleveland Indians had to a deep dive into the results to find any players from the club on the list. For fan voting, only position players are on the ballot, which already lowers the chances of the Tribe getting a player voted on as a starter. The offensive struggles of the team paired with injuries leaves just one player left as the Tribe’s only hope at an All-Star starter. Jose Ramirez.

Of the players on Cleveland’s roster, Ramirez is one of the few that has a shot at just playing in the All-Star Game, let alone starting. The other player that maybe had a shot was Franmil Reyes as the AL’s designated hitter, but his injury greatly decreased those chances and left just Ramirez on the list.

It was also hoped that maybe a pitcher could make a case to join the roster, but the injury to Shane Bieber will make his case a difficult one as well. The bullpen has been strong, but it’s been a group effort and pinpointing one player to send to the All-Star Game might be hard, once again leaving Ramirez as the team’s primary option.

Note: Stats are from games completed through June 16. 

After the first round of voting, that notion was only amplified. Ramirez was the only member of the Cleveland Indians to break into the top five at any position at the first update. So far, Ramirez has 9% of the vote at third base, placing him fourth at the position behind Rafael Devers (28%), Yoan Moncada (13%) and Alex Bregman (12%). The top five rounds out with Anthony Rendon below Ramirez with 7% of the vote.

The case for Ramirez is actually rather strong this year. Through the first 65 games of the season, Ramirez has been without a doubt the highlight of the offense, slashing .274/.354/.538 thus far to go along with 15 doubles, 15 home runs and 41 RBI, all of which lead the team.

As for his position, Ramirez’s 15 doubles stack up as tied for fourth among American League third baseman. His 15 home runs are second and his 41 RBI are second as well. Even his average is fifth, on-base percentage is third and slugging percentage is second. The only problem is that he trails Devers in all of those categories except on-base percentage where Devers is the spot below Ramirez.

While Ramirez is putting together a really strong campaign, it’s hard to argue against the performance of Devers. His 20 doubles are tied atop the American League, his 16 home runs are tied for fifth and his 55 RBI are second only to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

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Getting past those numbers might be hard for Ramirez, but he is still having a season that is overall better than Moncada and Bregman. The only barrier is that this is a fan vote. Not all fans vote off stats, most vote off who their favorite team or players are. For a player like Ramirez who plays on a small market team and is one of the more quiet guys in the league, that hurts his case.

Nevertheless, he’s still among the top four in the first round of fan voting. There’s still plenty of time to go vote for Ramirez and get him a starting spot in the All-Star Game in Colorado with phase one of fan voting ending on June 24 and the top three players at each position advancing to phase two. Given the injuries to the team, both in the batting order and on the mound, Ramirez is easily the club’s best chance to get a starter on the roster. Bieber and Reyes would have been options, but injuries will put them nearly completely out of contention.

Even if he isn’t voted a starter for the American League, there’s a good chance that Ramirez will be the player selected to represent the Cleveland Indians in the All-Star Game. There’s only a handful of players, if that, on the roster that could get a look to be in the game, but Ramirez has the best case of the bunch. If it wasn’t for Devers, Ramirez would most likely be leading the third basemen in the American League in multiple statistics, or at least close to it.