Guardians must learn from past mistakes from previous José Ramírez extension

At the end of spring training in 2022, José Ramírez gathered nearly every key decision maker on the Guardians into the visiting manager’s clubhouse at Chase Field to hammer out his contract extension. 

That ended up serving as the jumping off point for a magical season that otherwise would have been a dismal march through mediocrity had they traded Ramírez to the Padres or Blue Jays. 

It also opened up the Guardians’ payroll for future deals, which the front office vowed to use on various upgrades on the roster. 

And although they did repurpose some of those earnings for a variety of players, there’s not much to show for it four years later.

So with Ramírez and the Guardians agreeing to yet another below-market deal over the weekend, there have been plenty of calls from Guardians fans near and far for the team to use the money they saved on his deal to either extend a player on the roster or add an external bat via free agency or the trade market. 

The Guardians shouldn’t repeat the mistakes they made the last time they signed José Ramírez to an extension 

The first move the Guardians did with the savings they generated with Ramírez’s savings was to sign Myles Straw to a five-year, $25 million contract, which aged poorly.

While Straw won a Gold Glove in 2022, his struggles at the plate were so bad that the Guardians outrighted him off the roster ahead of the 2024 season despite still owing him $19.25 million. The Guardians traded Straw to the Blue Jays last season and are still paying part of his salary. 

Cleveland ended up spending even more money in 2023, but with even more disastrous results. 

They signed Trevor Stephan and Andrés Giménez to long-term extensions, but neither one of them were on the big league roster two years later, as Stephan struggled with arm injuries and is currently in Triple-A and Giménez was traded to the Blue Jays. 

Meanwhile, they signed Mike Zunino and Josh Bell to pricey deals (by Guardians’ standards) in free agency in the hopes that they’d add some power to the lineup. 

It didn’t work. Zunino hit .177 in 42 games before being released, while Bell didn’t do much better and was traded to the Marlins at the deadline. 

Don’t get us wrong, the Guardians’ front office made the right move by repurposing the money they saved by Ramírez taking a below-market deal. But the mistakes they made after his last extension arguably set the franchise back a couple years. 

Luckily for them, they have some clear avenues to spend the money that would be no-brainers, with the obvious one being signing Steven Kwan to a long-term extension. 

We’re at a point in the offseason where there aren’t a ton of marquee options available, so the best way for the front office to help show the fanbase (and Ramírez) that they’re serious about building a long-term winner is by ensuring that Kwan will be a pest at the top of the Guardians’ lineup for years to come.