Where's Ramírez on franchise leaderboards?

This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell’s Guardians Beat newsletter. Joe Trezza filled in on this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK – With his next multi-homer game, José Ramírez will match the Cleveland franchise record shared by Albert Belle and Jim Thome. With two more intentional walks, he’ll tie Thome for the franchise mark.

Baseball in Cleveland has been around for a while. Franchise records date back to 1901. Yet it might not be long before Ramirez is in possession of many of them.

The Guardians’ 6-time All-Star remains one of the lowest-profile superstars in baseball. So let’s use this mid-summer week’s newsletter to examine his upcoming milestones, and which franchise records already seem within his reach.

Runs
Ramírez current total: 877
Current place: 7th
Next up: Omar Vizquel, 906
Franchise all-time leader: Earl Averill, 1,154

Ramírez averages 73 runs per season and 100 every 162 games throughout his career. He’s 277 behind Averill for the top spot. At that pace, he’d need 450 games to catch him. That’s a little less than three full seasons, and Ramírez’s contract runs for four-plus more.

Total Bases
Ramírez current total: 2,634
Current place: 5th
Next up: Jim Thome, 2,667
Franchise all-time leader: Earl Averill, 3,200

Ramírez is one home run – or four singles, two doubles, a triple and a single ... you get it – away from tying Thome for fourth place on the Guardians' all-time list for total bases. He seems destined to catch the next three players ahead of him, too: Nap Lajoie, Tristram Speaker and Averill, the all-time leader. Ramírez entered Wednesday only 566 total bases behind Averill, and his career 162-game average is 302. If he keeps at that pace, Ramírez should pass Averill at some point in 2026.

Home Runs
Ramírez current total: 248
Current place: 2nd
Next up: Thome, 337
Franchise all-time leader: Thome

Thome hit 612 homers across 22 seasons in his career, and 337 of those in 13 seasons with Cleveland. Ramírez is in his 12th season in Cleveland, and if he catches Thome, he’ll need a bit more time. He’s 89 homers behind at the moment, and has averaged 28 home runs every 162 games for his career. If he keeps that pace, he should pass Thome by the time his current contract expires at the end of 2028.

How likely is that? It’s certainly possible, considering the 31-year-old Ramírez is on pace for 39 homers this year, which would match his career high.

Extra Base Hits
Ramírez current total: 639
Current place: 3rd
Next up: Speaker, 667
Franchise all-time leader: Averill, 724

Ramírez is 28 extra-base hits behind Speaker for second place on the franchise list, and 85 behind Averill. Given that he’s averaged 29 doubles per year over his career, he should be able to claim the top spot pretty soon, even if he never goes deep again.

Hits
Ramírez current total: 1,460
Current place: 11th
Next up: Terry Turner, 1,472
Franchise all-time leader: Lajoie, 2,052

Ramírez isn’t in the Top 10 yet when it comes to hits, but this is the category where he can make up a lot of ground and start passing people in a hurry. He’s only 13 hits away from passing Turner and entering the Top 10; He could do that by the end of this month. With another 100 hits, he’d pass Kenny Lofton and Ken Keltner. Another 300 after that would propel him past Omar Vizquel, Lou Boudreau and Charlie Jamieson into the Top 5.

To catch Lajoie, Ramírez needs 592 hits over the next four-plus seasons. He’s amassed 619 over the last four. So it’s definitely within his grasp.

Games played
Ramírez current total: 1,415
Current place: 11th
Next up: Vizquel, 1,478
Franchise all-time leader: Turner, 1,619

Ramírez is only 204 games away from Turner’s franchise mark, so he will get this record if he stays even reasonably healthy through the end of his current deal. If he avoids injury trouble all together, he’ll get there in 2026.