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

Players give back to the community all the time in any sport. But rarely does a quarter of the roster come out to support a teammate doing charitable work.

José Ramírez stood in the middle of his brand new youth baseball field, José Ramírez Field, that he donated to local boys and girls along with Cleveland Guardians Charities. As he looked out into the crowd, expressing his gratitude for the help that he received to make this dream a reality, he saw six of his teammates sitting in the small audience, including Xzavion Curry, Josh Naylor, Logan Allen, Tanner Bibee, Steven Kwan and Ramón Laureano, who was just acquired by Cleveland two weeks before the event.

“It says a lot,” Guardians owner and CEO Paul Dolan said. “It’s sort of obvious that they’re connected like that. I mean, Ramón Laureano, he probably doesn’t know his way around Cleveland at all, but yet he came out for this. So, good for him.”

A nice gesture on Laureano’s part? Absolutely. Simply showing up said a lot about each individual who visited Clark Park last Tuesday to support Ramírez’s generous gesture. But it shows even more how important Ramírez is to this clubhouse.

We all know the impact he can make on the field, but Ramírez is equally important to the Guardians off the field. Kwan still remembers showing up to the press conference last year that announced Ramírez’s seven-year contract extension. In that moment, he sat back and realized just how crucial the All-Star third baseman is to this city. So, as Kwan sat beside two rookies, Bibee and Allen, at Tuesday’s event, he realized this could be their moment when they realize the same. 

“I think for them, that was their first time seeing it,” Kwan said. “He’s not very loud in what he says and what he does around the place, but when he’s in situations like that, you can tell he’s our dog for a reason.”  
 
Allen hasn’t been around Ramírez for too long, but it doesn’t take much time, it seems, for these players to develop a tremendous respect for their leader.  
 
“He’s a legend,” Allen said. “I think he’s just setting a good example for us young players of what you hope to do in the community as you grow to be the star that he’s become. I think that us being out there showing our support for him is a great way for us to hopefully take that as a memory and hopefully down the road, we’re able to do something similar.”  
 
That inspiration ran through everyone in attendance.  
 
“To be able to see that, it’s an inspiration to [the kids],” Curry said, “and hopefully one day I’ll be able to do that either here or back in my hometown.”

When the Guardians came to an agreement with Ramírez to keep him in Cleveland through at least 2028, it was clear how badly Ramírez wanted to stay with the only club he’s known. But it also indicated just how much the organization wanted to try to meet him in the middle to keep him in Northeast Ohio. Last Tuesday was a big example as to why.  
 
“José is revered in the clubhouse, as he should be,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. "But I don’t know that every good player is revered just because they’re good. Sometimes, your teammates appreciate guys because they’re driving in runs and helping you win. They love this guy. And they should.  
 
“He does it the right way, and he’s done it the right way from the minute he got here and he hasn’t changed his enthusiasm. He took less money to stay in Cleveland, there’s so many reasons. And now there’s a field that has his name on it. That’s pretty cool, because that’s going to stay for a long time. And I think that’s really neat.”