Cleveland Guardians Make Roster Moves After Jose Ramirez Injury
The Cleveland Guardians officially placed Jose Ramirez on the injured list, among other roster moves.
Video Transcript
Stephen Vogt stood at the podium on Saturday evening and said that the team was still trying to figure out and navigate what the next steps would be after the Guardians suffered so many injuries in their victory over the Tigers.
And that some of those next steps were revealed on Sunday morning as the team announced that Jose Ramirez is going on the 10-day IL with that hamate fracture.
Not a shocking move whatsoever, but at this point it has been made official.
If you want to look at the positive here, maybe it's the fact that it's not the 60-day IL and perhaps at this point the Guardians are still hopeful that Ramirez can return in that four, five, six week range, but it's still going to be a lengthy absence for Cleveland's superstar third baseman.
And taking his spot on the roster is Gabriel Arias, who is coming off the 60-day injured list.
Remember, he suffered that hamstring injury back at the beginning of April.
He's actually been in a rehab assignment with the Columbus Clippers AAA over the last about week and a half at this point.
And he has been swinging a hot bat to his credit.
Over 15 at-bats during the rehab assignment.
He has three home runs.
So hopefully some of that will translate and come over to the major league level here now.
As Arias is probably one of the top contenders to get the most amount of playing time at third base in Ramirez's absence.
In fact, that's where he's starting on Sunday, hitting eighth in the lineup as well.
So Arias is coming off the injured list.
Now with that, because it's the 60-day IL, the Guardians also had to make a 40-man roster move.
And the final move that they made was they actually designated George Valera for assignment.
And this one did come as a little bit of a shock.
Valera was in the lineup hitting second in the playoffs just a couple months ago after providing a spark for the Guardians' lineup during September.
But this 2026 season just hasn't been as kind to the 25-year-old.
He started the season on the injured list.
He finally was activated in the middle of April.
Just really struggled at the plate over 13 games.
He had an OPS just over 500.
And after he was optioned down to the minor league level, he struggled with his swing as well.
And since that roster move back in May or the end of April, he has a 46 weighted runs created plus at AAA.
So clearly the Guardians just needed to create this spot on the roster for Arias and Valera was the odd man out.
Now, it'll be interesting to see whether or not this is the last roster move the Guardians make over the next couple of days with Angel Martinez, Chase DeLauter still suffering and dealing with their injuries as well.
But for right now, Arias has been recalled.
Jose's headed to the IL and the Guardians are certainly going to have some decisions to make on how they're going to operate through his absence.
