Last Night's Knockout Should Remind People That Jose Ramirez Is An Absolute Badass
I made a joke the other night on a live stream that one of the best things that will come out of the Tim Anderson knockout by Jose Ramirez is that it will probably be the most national exposure that Jose Ramirez will get all year. Multiple people have already written blogs about last night's slugfest. I recommend you all read them. The fight itself was awesome. Most baseball fights are a whole lot of bravado. The fact that we saw Jose Ramirez knock Tim Anderson on his ass was pretty sick. It was the first real iconic baseball brawl moment that we've had since Roughned Odor and Jose Bautista went toe to toe. I feel like there isn't a whole lot more. I can't add to the situation, but I can tell people that Jose Ramirez is an absolute menace whose greatness is sadly overlooked.
Quickly, I want you to name who you think the best third baseman in baseball is. Many people made default to Manny Machado or Nolan Arenado. And there's not necessarily a wrong answer here. There's a lot of great third-baseman baseball, but very few have been as consistent as Jose Ramirez has. Time flies because I was looking at Jose Ramirez's Baseball Reference page and realized that he's been the dude in Cleveland for almost a decade now. It took him a minute to get going at the big league level, but when he took off in Cleveland's AL pennant-winning 2016 season, he became a force.
People roll their eyes when I tell them that I think Jose Ramirez will end up in Cooperstown one day, and while he has a long way to go before he's considered a lock, he's amid a Hall of Fame prime. That doesn't mean much. Some guys have Hall of Fame primes but cannot pad their stats, but Jose Ramirez is only 30 years old. Pending injury, he probably has about three or four more prime years left.
Ramirez has made five All-Star teams and finished in the top six and MVP voting five times. He's already wrapped up four Silver Sluggers and well. He's not precisely Arenado with a glove, but he grades out to be a plus defender at third base and has been his whole career. He could've and probably should've won the American League MVP in the Covid year. I know I always go off about how nothing that happened in that season meant anything, but that could be why he doesn't end up in Cooperstown one day.
We could quickly point to the market that Ramirez plays in and use that as an excuse for why he often gets overlooked. But I don't buy that. I understand Cleveland isn't exactly New York or Los Angeles, but we're talking about a player who's been a part of multiple playoff teams. He played in the World Series in 2016. He should be a well-known name. Bizarrely I think the reason why Jose Ramirez gets overlooked is that when the Guardians (Indians at the time) were at the peak of their powers, it was Francisco Lindor that was considered the superstar. And I'm not here to knock Lindor. He's a fantastic player, but Ramirez was equally good when they were teammates. He's a scrappy player who lacks flashiness.
To me, that's part of his appeal. He's scrappy. Tim Anderson found that out last night. When you're putting together a remarkable career résumé, sometimes it's about moments, and those moments don't necessarily need to involve home runs or Gold Glove-winning defensive plays. Sometimes a great way to pad your resume is to knock someone the fuck out. Time will tell if Jose Ramirez is a Hall of Famer, but he has a first-ballot right hook.