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Guardians don't plan on naming Jose Ramirez captain in official manner
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- Guardians don't plan on naming Jose Ramirez captain in official manner
Every player in the clubhouse knows it. Everyone in the front office knows it. Every concession stand worker carefully tending to the hot dogs knows it. Every fan in the seats knows it. Everyone in the opposing dugout, preparing to try to slow him down, knows it.
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Jose Ramirez is the Guardians ' captain, leader and soul — but it sounds like that first title will be kept in an unofficial manner for now.
Ramirez has been the clear, undisputed beacon in Cleveland 's clubhouse for several years. On top of being the roster's best player by a pretty strong margin, he's also the example the coaching staff uses when describing to younger players how they should be acting and going about their business.
Do the Cleveland Guardians have a captain?
"As Jose goes, we go" might as well be engraved on the foundational concrete at Progressive Field.
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Plus, now that he has a new contract extension that could keep him in a Guardians uniform the rest of his playing career, Ramirez is as embedded into the very fabric of the organization as much as any one player could be.
But it doesn't look like the Guardians will be giving Ramirez the Derek Jeter treatment, at least not in an official manner, though it's more out of principle than anything else. And they don't want to take away from the contributions of Steven Kwan , Austin Hedges , David Fry and others.
"In my opinion, everybody's different, but the captain is not a thing in baseball," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said near the beginning of spring training camp. "I think if you polled that room, everybody would say, 'Well, yeah, we go where Jose goes.' But if you talk to them, they'd be like, 'Well, Hedgie does [some leadership things], Kwan does, David does.'
"You know, we have so many great leaders in that room that to name one captain, it's just not how our game works."
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Still, everybody knows the deal, officially or unofficially. It's just not something the team is interested in pursuing.
"For me, Jose is our captain," Vogt added. "We know that he's our best player. But to name a captain, to me, that's not baseball."
Ryan Lewis covers the Cleveland Guardians and Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Why Jose Ramirez won't be named officially named Guardians captain
