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

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.