'The complete package': J-Ram has baseball's attention

NEW YORK -- We conduct anonymous polls of players during Spring Training every year. It’s a fun way to get guys to talk about who the best opponents are across the Major Leagues.

But every year, we ask the same question: “Who is the most underrated player who is not on your team?”

Players in Cleveland’s clubhouse never gives an answer under these rules.

Every player says the same thing: “Well, it’s José Ramírez, so if I can’t say him, I don’t know who else to say.”

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Ramírez rarely strikes out and is capable of swiping more than 40 bases (as we saw this year). But he hasn’t gotten the same amount of national attention as a handful of other stars who put up similar numbers.

Therefore, the underrated narrative was born, but it doesn’t mean it’s true.

“He's the complete package,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on Sunday. “I get on people all the time. If I hear another how underappreciated, underrated he is from somebody on a network or something, I want to rip my arms off and throw it at the TV. He's not underappreciated. He is not underrated. He's a great, on track [for the] Hall of Fame player, and everybody knows it, including everyone sitting out here.

“It's almost, when someone starts talking about him, you have to mention how underappreciated he is. It's incredible.”

It’s true. The name “José Ramírez” and “underrated” are so synonymous to every baseball onlooker that it was a question Guardians manager Stephen Vogt had to field almost daily in the first few weeks of Spring Training.

Vogt had played against Ramírez and could bring a new perspective to those who have wondered for so long how this star could be so underrated with the numbers he puts up.

Vogt had a similar answer seven months ago: Within the game, Ramírez is not underrated.

From an opponent’s point of view, Vogt remembers circling Ramírez’s name in Cleveland’s lineup every time he had to prepare to catch a game against him. The skipper recalled how difficult it was to try to find a glaring weakness to try to gear their plans toward.

Vogt repeated over and over that although externally Ramírez seems to be underrated, it’s simply not the case in baseball.

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“He's one of the elite players in this league,” Vogt said. “He's a top-five player in this league every year. In the baseball circles, everyone knows about it and talks about it.”

The Yankees know it, too. And like Vogt had to just a few years ago, they’re now trying to figure out their game plan to attack Ramírez in the AL Championship Series.

“Switch-hitter, power, great baserunner, great defender at third,” Boone said. “He's a great all-around player, period. He creates some problems. Hopefully, we can keep him quiet enough, but I think he has the utmost respect from everyone in the game.”

Ramírez has been relatively quiet this postseason, aside from the clutch homer in Game 4 of the AL Division Series on Thursday night to help the Guardians force a Game 5 on Saturday afternoon. But it’s been guys like Steven Kwan, David Fry, Lane Thomas and Brayan Rocchio who have carried the offense so far.

That’s been the biggest strength of Cleveland’s lineup this year. This group can rely on hitters one through nine in any given game, but no one has put the entire team on his back. But the beauty is that the Guardians know Ramírez has the capabilities of doing just that at any moment.

Cleveland made it through the ALDS without Ramírez being scorching hot. In the 2022 ALDS between the Guardians and Yankees, Ramírez went 8-for-20 (.400) with two doubles and two RBIs in five games.

If Ramírez can lock in like that again against the Yanks, it may be the difference maker to give this team a chance to win its first World Series title since 1948.

“When José's going, there's nobody better,” Vogt said. “I think that's the beauty of José. He's one swing away at all times. There's not one set of eyes that isn't locked in on him when he's at the plate. He's electric.”