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Why Jose Ramirez, Guardians contract extension is among rarest in MLB
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- Why Jose Ramirez, Guardians contract extension is among rarest in MLB
The multiverse theory , driven by quantum mechanics and cosmological patterns, states that an infinite number of alternate, parallel universes exist, in which every single possible scenario for every single person in the world has happened, or is happening, or will happen.
This might be the only universe in which Jose Ramirez stays in Cleveland for two full decades. And you're living in it.
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Ramirez and the Guardians came to an agreement on a new seven-year, $175 million extension that can keep him in Cleveland through the 2032 season, around the time he'll be turning 40 years old.
By the time the contract runs its course, assuming it does, he'd be the 20th player in baseball history to spend an entire career of at least 20 seasons with one club. All of those players save for one (Mel Harder) are already in the Baseball Hall of Fame .
Even across all of baseball, it genuinely might be the last time a player of Ramirez's caliber remains with a mid-market franchise for an entire two-decades-long run. These types of deals, for this type of player, from this type of a team, have become extremely rare. And Ramirez has now done this multiple times.
Ramirez exuded unwavering confidence from the moment he stepped onto the field in 2013, originally deployed mostly as a pinch runner. He'll potentially end his career as the greatest player in franchise history (or one of them) who likely won't have to wait long after retirement to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Jose Ramirez setting Guardians franchise records
Ramirez's name is already plastered across the franchise's record books , even at the beginning of this seven-year extension. He's in the top 10 in home runs (second), hits (seventh), doubles (third), runs scored (third), RBIs (second) and stolen bases (second), among other categories. By the time this contract ends, he'll likely be first or second nearly across the board.
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He'll enter the 2026 season fifth in career fWAR (57.7) in Cleveland baseball history , behind only Nap Lajoie (74.9), Tris Speaker (72.2), Lou Boudreau (62.9) and Bob Feller (61.4). If he puts up another Ramirez-esque season in 2026, he could be third on that list with (at least) six years to go.
Ramirez is easily on track to eventually have a statue standing outside of Progressive Field one day (or wherever Cleveland is playing their home games in the distant future). The bigger question is what pose the team goes with for a statue, possibly Ramirez sliding at home plate with his helmet flying off, or his now-signature strut. Tim Anderson is just hoping it's any option other than what happened in August 2023 at second base .
Ramirez, who has spent most of the last decade at the top of the list among underappreciated stars in baseball, was recently ranked as the No. 5 player in the game by MLB Network. Since the 2016 season, he's tied for third in fWAR with 56.0, along with Mookie Betts and behind only Aaron Judge (61.5) and Francisco Lindor (56.5). He's finished in the top six in MVP voting in seven of those years, with four MVP-finalist seasons (top three).
Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez throws to first base against the Kansas City Royals on Sept. 10, 2025, in Cleveland.
Does Jose Ramirez already have a Hall of Fame case?
The average Hall of Fame third baseman (there are 18) has a career fWAR of 68.9, a career peak fWAR of 43.7 and a 56.1 JAWS, three benchmarks that generally offer a guide for Hall of Fame worthiness. Ramirez, if he retired today , would be at 57.6/44.6/51.1. His career peak might be enough to garner the needed 75% of the vote even now, or at least a healthy percentage of the vote.
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That's all to illustrate not only just how elite Ramirez has been on the field, but how unlikely it was that he'd play his entire career for a mid-market franchise by payroll standards. It was clear long before Lindor was traded to the New York Mets that his time in Cleveland was coming to an end.
Had Ramirez not signed the extension before the 2022 season, he would have hit free agency several seasons ago. In fact, right now, he'd probably be a Dodger had he not given the Guardians such a hometown discount.
Jose Ramirez stats, decision to stay with Guardians
He's left a truckload of potential money on the table — yes, he knows it and, yes, he's fine with it.
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The seven-year, $141 million extension he signed in 2022 was laughably below what his market value would have been at the time. This seven-year, $175 million extension fits the bill as well. It's for a higher dollar amount, and Ramirez is now 33 years old, but contracts have also ballooned in size over the last several years. Each time, the response from the baseball world to the two seven-year extensions Ramirez has signed has been general astonishment.
"I was the one who made the decision," Ramirez told Hector Gomez in Spanish recently , speaking about the 2022 extension he signed and noting he told the team to find an agreement that worked for both sides. "I knew that wasn't my worth as a player, and everybody let me know that."
This newest extension doesn't let the Guardians off the hook in terms of needing to support him with a sense of urgency . It would behoove a franchise to take advantage of such a valuable player being signed to such a favorable deal for such a long time. These things don't happen often, regardless of how many universes actually do exist out there.
The Guardians ranked 28th in runs scored last season and were dead last in the American League. They pulled off a historic, 15.5-game comeback to repeat as division champs despite of their offense, not because of it.
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And, yet, the lineup has been virtually untouched as it becomes clear the Guardians will almost certainly enter Opening Day 2026 with a payroll roughly $30 million lower than it was in 2025 or 2024. They'll instead lean into several younger players, like Chase DeLauter , George Valera and possibly Travis Bazzana. It's not how many teams that averaged 90 wins in the two prior seasons operate, superstar third baseman discount in the back pocket or not.
It furthers the argument that Ramirez might be the single most important position player to his own team in the league, which probably has been true for a while now.
Jose Ramirez contract could be valuable longer than most
Now, when it comes to long-term contract in baseball, the truth of the matter is that Ramirez is 33, and his game is in part predicated on speed (and chaos, really). Father Time is eventually undefeated, and Ramirez's peak won't last forever — another reason why Guardians ownership has every reason to get aggressive with spending. These types of long-term deals have traditionally been handed out with franchises knowing full well that the back end of the contract will probably hurt (see: Miguel Cabrera , Albert Pujols , etc.).
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In Ramirez's case, that might eventually become true to a smaller degree, but the value of the deal could still hold much longer than the other examples, especially given the fact he is used by the franchise as the shining of example of how to conduct oneself, and in that he's been a tremendous mentor for several of the team's younger players, particularly from the Dominican Republic.
The return on investment is likely to be fantastic for the franchise year-by-year, in one way or another, even if or when his on-field production finally slips below his current MVP-finalist levels.
"For starters, all of my kids were born in Cleveland, my wife is comfortable here, I owe Cleveland a lot," Ramirez told Gomez. "Ever since I started in Cleveland, I have never received backlash. I've seen other players on other teams receive it, but I haven't."
Cleveland is where he wanted to be, and sometimes that really does win out, even if it has become an extremely rare occurrence for any mid-market team, one that was previously thought to be lost to a bygone era.
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Cleveland chose Ramirez, and now Ramirez, just a kid from Bani in the Dominican Republic, has chosen Cleveland and the frozen shores of Lake Erie.
They say you can't put a price on going home. Perhaps you also can't put a price on finding a place that feels like home.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jose Ramirez, Guardians contract might be the last time MLB sees this
