The Cleveland Guardians are keeping their star around for a little while longer.
This morning, the Guardians and their 29-year-old slugger Jose Ramirez came to terms on a contract extension for five years, worth $124 million.
The extension amounts to the largest contract in Cleveland Guardians history, far surpassing that of Edwin Encarnacion back in 2017, which was for three years and worth $60 million.
Still, if you look at the all-important advanced metric, Wins Above Replacement, or WAR, Ramirez is being retained by the Guardians well below his value.
MLB insider Jim Duquette points out that Ramirez is third in combined fWAR since 2018, behind only Mookie Betts and Mike Trout.
If you like WAR as a metric, Jose Ramirez is 3rd in combined fWAR since 2018, behind only Mookie Betts and Mike Trout @GuardiansTalk
— Jim Duquette (@Jim_Duquette) April 6, 2022
Below His Value
This goes to show how undervalued Ramirez appears to be by the Guardians.
It’s no wonder that rumors were circulating about him potentially being traded if something didn’t work out between him and the Guardians.
But Ramirez is clearly one of the best players in all of baseball, so it is surprising to see him not get a little bit more on his extension.
Not that it’s a bad deal, but one would think that Cleveland would try to pay their superstar a little bit more.
It’s clear that some teams are just playing things cheap and not really investing much into trying to improve their roster.
The Guardians are obviously one of those teams.
On top of that, they haven’t really tried to build around Ramirez.
They don’t have a bad team on paper, but Ramirez is really their only star, and if they want to win and keep him around even longer, they have to do something to make him want to stay, like adding some pieces to surround him.
NEXT: MLB Insider Shares How Guardians Avoided A Jose Ramirez Trade