The year Jose became a hall of famer
This season, 2024, may be remembered someday as the year Jose Ramirez solidified his case as a Hall of Famer, putting up 39 home runs, 40 doubles and 41 steals, 6.5 fWAR and leading his team to another Central Division title. He also was the starting third baseman on the All-Star team and made it to the second round of the Home Run Derby.
Among primary third baseman since baseball’s integration listed on FanGraphs, Ramirez is now 26th all-time at 51.6 fWAR, and, at the age of 31, his fWAR pace is ahead of Chipper Jones who is fifth on this list. He will end up top five in MVP voting and has been nominated for a gold glove at third base, again.
For Guardians fans who watched the season, we know that Jose carried the team at several points and was a reliable source of production as always. It’s hard not to take him for granted, batting second or third in the order, reliably putting up good at-bat after good at-bat. As an example, Jose is only the second player in MLB history to hit at least 39 homers (robbed by rain of his 162nd game), 39 doubles and get 39 steals in a season, with Alfonso Soriano doing it twice; but Jose did it while striking out far fewer times than his compatriots. Soriano had a 22% and 21.2% strikeout rate in his two 39/39/39 seasons, and Jose had a strikeout rate of 12%. He’ll still regularly go a week or two without swinging and missing and put up 11 or 12 pitch at-bats until he gets a pitch to pull into the seats.
An odd quirk of this season were a couple of Jose’s splits as he had a 121 wRC+ against RHP and a 196 wRC+ vs LHP. For his career, Jose has a 130 wRC+ vs RHP and a 126 wRC+ against LHP, so I would guess those numbers will probably move back towards each other more next year. I’m not complaining about Jose crushing lefties, however, so let’s hope that continues. The other odd split was Jose’s 60 wRC+ in 133 plate appearances as a DH and 161 wRC+ in 549 plate appearances as a third baseman. For his career, Jose has a 100 wRC+ as a DH, so I think it’s fair to conclude the 60 wRC+ as a DH were just an oddity. Experience also teaches us that the more a player experiences hitting as a DH, the more they become comfortable with the challenges of the role and improve their numbers. It looks as if Cleveland’s strategy of giving Jose DH appearances to keep him fresh worked in 2024 so I would expect it to continue and I’d also expect Jose to hit better in the role. Both of these splits give me SOME hope that we could finally get that Jose MVP season before the aging curve inevitably comes into effect.
The number one way Jose could improve his performance in 2025 would be to increase his walk rate. For his career, Jose has a 9.9% walk rate, but prior to 2024, from 2018-2023 he put up an 11.5% walk rate. He needs to find his way back to something closer to that to have an even better offensive season next year, which can be accomplished by exercising plate discipline more similar to his career rates. Jose has a 25.3% out-of-zone swing rate for his career, but he swung outside the zone at a 31.8% rate. His contact rate remained essentially at his career 86% rate overall, so he is seeing the ball as well as normal, just decided to swing more often for whatever reason.
If I were whoever Cleveland’s new intrepid hitting coach is, I would tell Jose “Do what you do, champ. But, if you love me, if you want me to look like a genius, just trust your teammates around you a little more and take a FEW more pitches on the edge of the zone.” Teams know the only shot to get Jose out consistently is to HOPE he will chase, because he loves hitting so much. Just look at his face after he takes a walk to see how much he hates it. Learn to love it just about 10% more, Jose, and I think we could see an even better season in 2025.
Jose received some criticism for his playoff performance during which he put up only a 97 wRC+. It’s pretty crucial, however, to remember he put up a .172 batting average on balls in play during his ten playoff games. For whatever reasons, Jose’s best hits and best at-bats didn’t come at the best times and several hard hit balls were hit directly at guys (or JUST foul). It’s heartbreaking for all of us who were hoping he would have a hall of fame moment or two and carry the team to the World Series. But, it wasn’t a choke job and should serve as a reminder to the team to do whatever it takes to give him another shot at playoff stardom in 2025.
Jose will turn 32 years old this next season and father time is undefeated. I know he eventually will begin to decline as a hitter. I hope we are all ready to appreciate him just as much then as we do now and remember that he chose to stay with Cleveland, turning down $100-200 million more he could have potentially got in free agency. I hope we’ll always remember all the moments of joy he has brought us as fans of the Guardians. And, I really hope we get to see another 6-8 win season from him in 2025. For now, enjoy some highlights from Jose in the season that was: