Jose Ramirez Is Giving Cleveland Baseball Fans a Reason to Believe Again

Earlier this week I wrote an article about Jose Ramirez. After a slow second half and a 0/6 postseason start, I thought we were in for another rough October for the best player in Cleveland baseball history.

Well, three games and a series win later, Ramirez raised his career postseason OPS by over 60 points, and he single-handedly saved an ice-cold Cleveland offense. More than just that, I feel I didn’t give Ramirez a fair shake in my last article on him.

Jose had difficult postseason runs from 2016-2018, but since then he’s been incredibly solid for Cleveland. More importantly, since 2020, in lineups with zero protection around him, he has been the only consistent bat for the Guardians. 2026 has been no different.

In the first two games, Ramirez was hitless, and the Guardians scored three runs total. In the next two games, he reached base five times, and Cleveland scored 18 runs. Finally, in one of the biggest moments of his career, Ramirez went yard, driving in the only two runs of the game.

Yes, Ramirez had a rough first two games of the series, but when the season was on the ropes, he absolutely carried Cleveland’s offense. Ramirez slashed .417/500/1.167 over his final three games of the series, good for a 1.667 OPS.

He’s also third in baseball in postseason homers, second in RBIs, and fourth in OPS for the series. Jose not only carried Cleveland’s offense, but he was also one of the best postseason performers in baseball.

In a season where Cleveland was wildly inconsistent, you never expected this roster to make an October run, but they now sit just four games away from a trip to the World Series. As crazy as it sounds, this Guardians team now appears to have the pieces around Ramirez to go on a little run.

Gavin Williams leads all pitchers in strikeouts this postseason, and the team also has what could be baseball’s most dangerous bullpen piece in Cade Smith. Williams tied the record for strikeouts in a game by a Guardian, while Smith shut down the final inning or two every time he toed the rubber.

If Hunter Gaddis, Erik Sabrowski, Tim Herrin, Shaun Armstrong, and the extra starters in the rotation can piece together the middle innings, Cleveland will only need a few runs a game to pull off an upset. 

Fortunately for Cleveland, the guy who will have a statue in front of the stadium in a few years will likely get them the missing runs.