José Ramírez tabs unlikely Guardians teammate as MLB’s most underrated player 

For a better part of the past decade, José Ramírez has ranked as one of the most underrated players in baseball. 

And while he’s gained a bit more star power thanks to his run of strong seasons and historic feats, he still knows a thing or two about what it takes to be underrated. 

He addressed that very topic on Tuesday during an interview with MLB Network’s Lauren Gardner on Chatting Practice, where he dubbed Guardians ace Gavin Williams as the most underrated player in baseball.  

Gavin Williams gets co-sign from fellow Guardians superstar José Ramírez

Although Williams doesn’t get the same kind of hype as some of his teammates (that is the whole point of being underrated, after all), he’s as good a pick as any. 

The big 6-foot-6 right-hander has been on a year this season, as he’s posted a 2.12 ERA in 29 2/3 innings (five starts) to go along with 40 strikeouts. 

He’s gone 5+ innings in all five of those starts, and is coming off a start where he allowed just one run in seven innings against the Orioles. His best start of the season came in the first week of April when he threw seven shutout innings against the defending champion Dodgers. 

But don’t let that small sample size fool you — he’s been one of the best pitchers in baseball across the past 12 months. Last year Williams finished with a 3.06 ERA in 167 2/3 innings, and came within two outs of breaking the Guardians’ no-hitter during his start against the Mets in August. 

The biggest thing that Williams can do now to shed that ‘underrated’ label is lock in on his command, which has been the biggest bugaboo throughout his MLB career. He’s finished each season of his career with a walk rate above 9.5%, and is coming off a season where he allowed an MLB-leading 83 walks. 

Still, it’s incredibly impressive that he’s been able to reach the heights he has while struggling with those command issues, and it’s really fun to think about the heights he can reach once he reigns in those issues. 

But regardless of what happens, it’s clear that he’s become the ace of the Guardians’ rotation alongside Parker Messick, who just carried his own no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Orioles and has a 2.07 ERA through the first 11 starts of his career. 

That kind of dominance from the starting staff is a huge boon to Ramírez and the Guardians as a whole. While Ramírez makes the top of Cleveland’s lineup incredibly tough to navigate, the only way they’re going to be able to win consistently is if the starting pitchers are at their best. 

Ramírez has spent the past year getting a front row seat to Williams being at his best. Now he wants the rest of the baseball world to see it. 

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