The Indians won again. They’re going for 20 consecutive wins on Tuesday, and they’re facing the Tigers, and, huh, it’s Corey Kluber versus Matt Boyd. I can’t even make a “That would be so baseball!” joke about that matchup. Sometimes baseball bends back around and becomes completely normal.
Jose Ramirez is the Indians
You want someone like Jose Ramirez in your organization every year. You will not get him.
Photo by David Maxwell/Getty Images
Even if they don’t win on Tuesday, they’ve won 19 straight, which is already one of the greatest winning streaks of all time. The Indians are the biggest story in baseball right now, and as someone who has averaged 100 page views for every Indians story of his career, I AM HERE FOR IT. Let’s talk about some Indians together. Let’s make up for some lost time.
The story of the story, then, is Jose Ramirez. Who does things like this:
And this:
And this:
He is the player you want on your team. You will never get him on your team. The progression is too pure, too delightful. Take a year-by-year tour of just how beautiful he must appear to Indians fans.
2011 - age 18
Ramirez is just a kid hitting .325 in Rookie League. You can’t learn anything from Rookie League stats. There will be 48 teenagers who hit .300 in Rookie League, and maybe three of them will be in the majors in six years.
But he was a switch-hitter with a line-drive swing, and the Indians were keen on him.
2012 - age 19
Ramirez hits .354 for Lake County in Low-A, but he ranks just 23rd in the Indians’ system after the year because, according to Baseball America:
Ramirez has little power and minimal physical projection, so some scouts worry that more advanced pitchers will eat him up.
...
Ramirez lacks a high ceiling, but he’s a well-rounded player who may continue to surprise as he moves through the system. He’s ready for high Class A at age 20.
That’s someone you keep your eye on. Heck, he might reach Double-A if things get wild.
2013 - age 20
Or ... the majors? After hitting like a wee Cliff Pennington in Double-A?
I don’t understand how this happened.
I can understand the decision to skip Ramirez over High-A after his sweet debut in Low-A. But I can’t understand the decision to skip him over Triple-A after a mediocre season in Double-A. Into the majors. Where the Indians were contending.
It was just a September cup of coffee, sure, but it was still a bizarre roster move.
Unless you factor in the part where the people who run the Indians are pretty good at evaluating baseball players.
2014 - age 21
They’re so good at evaluating baseball players that they decided to move Ramirez all the way to Triple-A, where he thrived.
They’re so good at evaluating baseball players that they called him up to the majors, where he ... well, he didn’t thrive. That’s okay, though. There was always next year.
2015 - age 22
Here’s the part where he’s laying the groundwork to become a beloved fan favorite. There are no expectations. He’s a complete enigma, someone who was hitting well in Triple-A (but not that well) and not doing anything in the majors. He could play a few positions, but he wasn’t really a shortstop, and nobody knew if his bat would play at second or third.
If I have to slap a comp on him at this point, it’s easily Ruben Tejada. Look at the ages. Look at the performances in the majors. Why are these guys up? Is it that the Indians are pretty good at evaluating baseball players, and they’ve correctly pegged him as a utility player?
2016 - age 23
In which Ramirez becomes a badass Swiss Army Knife for a pennant-winning team.
This is where the legend really begins, but I want you to imagine just how unencumbered Ramirez was with expectations. He was a familiar presence. He was the ninth-best prospect in the system before the 2014 season according to Baseball America, but he was never supposed to be a franchise cornerstone.
The progression of headlines on Let’s Go Tribe says it all.
The projections before the season were modest. And they should have been. There is nothing better than a surprise player like this. Nothing. It’s a gift from above, a $50 in your coat pocket. If this was his peak, Ramirez was already an absolute gift.
This was not his peak.
2017 - age 24
It’s the year 2017. The future. Ramirez is still about as old as a prospect, except now he leads the American League in extra-base hits. He’s a viable MVP candidate. And he might be the best player on a team that’s with great players and might win 100 games.
Every year, you scan the depths of your team’s minor-league system, wondering if someone like this will show up. Every year, you’ll be disappointed. There are plenty of oysters, but there aren’t nearly enough pearls.
Ramirez is, in a way, a symbol of the indefatigable Indians, the ones who emerged from nowhere and turned 94 losses into 92 wins and then stuck around indefinitely. Both the Indians and Ramirez were enigmas. Then they were really, really good. And then they were unspeakably awesome. Now we’re here, and they’re not going anywhere.
You want a Jose Ramirez on your team. You can’t have one. The Indians have the only one in existence, and he’s pretty freaking awesome. The best story in baseball right now is the Indians, and Ramirez is easily the best story on the best story.
I can’t wait for him to go full Mike Trout next year.
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