José Ramírez’s rough season could open door to nightmare Silver Slugger winner for Guardians

Last year José Ramírez did just enough to hold off Junior Caminero and win his sixth career Silver Slugger award. 

That’s not going to be the case this year. 

While we still don’t know which third third baseman is going to win the award, we know it’s not going to be Ramírez, who is in the midst of a career-worst season that’s been marred by underperformance and injury. 

One player who seems primed to take advantage of those struggles is the slugging Caminero, who leads all AL third baseman in home runs (35) and RBI (84) while producing plenty of signature moments for the AL East-leading Rays. 

Junior Caminero is making a strong Silver Slugger case

Even though Ramírez bested Caminero in last year’s Silver Slugger race, it seemed like it was only going to be a matter of time until he won the award himself. Ramírez’s struggles this season have opened up the possibility that it could come sooner rather than later. 

After putting together a 1-for-4 showing against the Angels on Monday, Ramírez is now .235/.334/.374 with 10 home runs and 39 RBI. 

While he’s recorded 29 steals and is on pace for another 40 steal season, those numbers are a far cry from the .283 batting average with 30 home runs and 85 RBI that he had last season. 

Meanwhile, Caminero has a .264/.364/.531 slashline with 30 home runs, 84 RBI and 20 doubles. He may be worth -18 Outs Above Average in the field and lead MLB in double plays hit into (23), but he has majestic power and is morphing into a great all-around player. 

The other top candidates to win the award are Chicago’s Miguel Vargas (29 home runs) and Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle (.814 OPS with 56 RBI), but it would take a lot for either of them to jump past Caminero. 

Even if Caminero’s win would be another twist of the knife to a Guardians front office that traded him to the Rays in exchange for Tobias Myers, Cleveland's ability to tread water this season without a productive Ramírez has been a testament to the team’s plucky lineup and trade deadline victories. 

While it would be easy to pin Ramírez’s struggles on that hamate injury that robbed him of more than a month of play, he was hitting just .239 prior to the injury. 

That said, he’s hit just .226 without a home run in his 26 games since returning, so it’s clear that it’s sapped him of some of the power that had helped push him to Silver Slugger wins in the past. 

Ramírez is still the heartbeat of the Guardians’ lineup, but this year hasn’t given him the same kind of offensive résumé that can stand up to a player of Caminero’s profile. 

But Ramírez can make that conversation largely irrelevant in Cleveland by playing well down the stretch as the Guardians continue their quest toward the postseason.  

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