J-Ram's incredible drive lifted Guardians to playoffs

CLEVELAND -- No one loves baseball like José Ramírez.

The Guardians have found themselves in the playoffs after they had just a 33.4 percent chance of doing so entering the season, according to FanGraphs. They’ve done it with essentially the same offense that struggled to put runs on the board in 2023. They’ve found ways to manage despite having little starting pitching depth. They got younger, turning to relievers, position players and starters who had yet to make their debuts. Oh, and they had a first-time manager at the helm.

So, how did they get here?

"I think it's because of José,” Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan said. “He knows what he needs to do to get prepped every day, but at the end of the day, he wants to win.”

It all sounds so cliché. Every team says it turns to the best player on the roster to get through tough times. But this is different.

Ramírez is obsessed with getting better. He’s a superstar who decided to play in the Dominican Winter League over the offseason ... for fun. Yes, the league that’s usually filled with hopeful prospects who need to better an aspect of their game or guys at the tail end of their careers just looking to get some innings somewhere. Not players still in their prime, who earned some down time in the offseason.

But Ramírez missed baseball over the winter. He wanted to play in his home country. He wanted to give his fans in the Dominican Republic who don’t have the means to watch him in person in the United States a chance to see him play. So he suited up for a handful of games, because why not?

“He’s the epitome of what a professional baseball player should be,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.

So when his teammates credit him as the reason they’ve overcome the odds to be a playoff team, it’s not just a canned answer. It’s the truth.

The 2024 season started with him playfully (but kind of not) screaming in the clubhouse during the first week of Spring Training when he was left off one of the starting lineups. You know, the time of year when starters barely play to ease their way back into the grind. That was after he and the rest of the team decided to report to camp 10 days earlier than they needed to just to get some extra work in.

Ramírez is the first one to line up for extra ground balls before a game. He’ll take the early bus on the road to show up for extra batting practice. On Thursday, he was asking the Guardians’ clubhouse manager to confirm to his teammates that he was the first one to show up for the workout day leading up to the AL Division Series in his typical jovial manner. But it all plays into the example he’s made on the rest of his young team.

“At the end of the day, it's making sure we win,” Kwan said. “If our leader is doing that, we have to follow no matter what."

It’s this work ethic that caused him to go from a young utility guy trying to make a roster into one of the best players to play for this franchise. It’s led him to six All-Star Games, four Silver Sluggers and four top-four finishes in the AL MVP race. It came close to leading him to the second 40-40-40 season in MLB history this year. And yet, he’s still hungry for more.

“It’s one of my favorite parts of having this job is getting to watch [José] every single night,” Vogt said. “We’re spoiled.”

Ramírez finished his 12th big league season slashing .279/.335/.537 with 39 doubles, two triples, 39 homers, 118 RBIs, 41 steals and just 82 strikeouts in 158 games. Yet when he was asked if he thought this was his best year, he said no. He thinks his best years are ahead of him.

“He's one of the best hitters in baseball,” Angels manager Ron Washington said when his team was in town this year. “That’s American League and National League.”

Ramírez has carried the Guardians this far. Now they’re ready to have a front-row seat to watch him do it through October.

“These are the moments that make you immortalized,” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges said. “He’s already immortalized in Cleveland, but I’m just dying for him to get immortalized for the world because he deserves it.

“People talk about [Aaron] Judge and [Shohei] Ohtani and other players that carry a team. He needs to be in that conversation. This is when you do it.”