Cleveland Guardians: 3 reasons Cleveland won’t extend Jose Ramirez

Jose Ramirez current bargain backfires on Cleveland Guardians

There’s no question that Jose Ramirez has been the best bargain in baseball for majority of his current contract. Since 2017 he’s been named an All-Star three times, has been a Silver Slugger three times and has finished in the top three of the MVP voting, you guessed it, three times, including a runner-up finish in 2020. All of that for the low price of $26 million over four seasons.

Now, the club options are starting to kick in for Ramirez and while his price will jump and most likely remain the highest number on Cleveland’s payroll, Ramirez will still be quite the bargain. He’s set to make $12 million in 2022 and $14 million in 2023.

While Ramirez’s bargain will help in the short-term, it could actually hurt in the long-term. The front office in Cleveland won’t want to risk losing the next two seasons of bargain play from Ramirez and Ramirez could very easily ask to make up for money missed.

Ramirez is still playing at a high level and is clearly the best offensive player on the roster. Odds are he will want to be paid to those standards. Jose Abreu, who beat out Ramirez for the 2020 MVP award, is making $18 million in 2022. Freddie Freeman, who took home the NL MVP in 2020, made $21 million in 2021 and is set to bring in a massive deal this offseason as a free agent.

Ramirez could very easily wait to see what Abreu and Freeman sign for in the next couple offseasons and ask for a similar number. For that reason alone, an extension this offseason seems like a reach and perhaps even an extension at all.

Jose Ramirez age when current deal expires

As it currently stands, Jose Ramirez will be 31-years old when his next deals kicks in. With a September birthday, Ramirez will play majority of the 2022 season at 29 and 2023 at 30 before turning 31 just before the 2023 season concludes. History would tell us that Cleveland might shy away from extending Ramirez on that reason alone.

Large contracts for older veterans haven’t always worked out in Cleveland’s favor and those scars could make the team uneasy about a massive deal for Ramirez. Edwin Encarnacion saw a drop in production upon his arrival to Cleveland at the age of 34 on a deal worth $60 million. Encarnacion would later be traded before his deal expired.

Moving through history, Nick Swisher came to Cleveland at the age of 32 and also saw his production plummet while Cleveland signed checks that totaled $26 million over two years.

Our final example, Michael Bourn. Bourn signed with Cleveland at the age of 31 and made $20.5 million over two sub-par seasons.

Now, it would be one thing if I just pulled a few random contracts from history, but these are three of the club’s five largest contracts ever and were all offered to players over the age of 30. As previously stated, Ramirez will be 31 when his next deal is currently set to be signed.

Encarnacion, Swisher and Bourn were all solid players at the time of their contracts. Were they Ramirez level? I’m not sure, but the point is still valid. Cleveland rarely signs players over the age of 30 to big contracts, and when they do the results are hard to look at.

Cleveland Guardians have rising prospects for third base

If Cleveland had no options in the minors ready to take over third base, then extending Jose Ramirez would be a near no-brainer. However, that’s not the case. One of the club’s best prospects in Nolan Jones is a natural third baseman and he’s not the only player capable of playing the position.

Cleveland has a plethora of infield talent coming up through the system and while majority of talk has been about who will fill the middle infield spots, some of those players could shift over to third in a few seasons if Ramirez is no longer with the team.

Amed Rosario has shown his ability at the plate and his glove has improved, making the middle infield race even more complicated. That leaves top prospects Tyler Freeman and Gabriel Arias vying for one spot. Unless, third base opens up. If that were to happen, then there are just as many options to play third as there are for second right now, if not more.

That paired with the money the club would save from not extending Ramirez and pushing that money towards younger players like Bieber and Reyes and Jose Ramirez is all of a sudden an expendable asset in Cleveland, at least in terms of a contract extension.