Indians: Jose Ramirez comes in 2nd for MVP voting, becomes elite

Jose Ramirez has fallen short of the MVP award for the third time in his career, but his runner-up spot makes him officially a top-three player in MLB.

Not Mike Trout, not Christin Yelich, not Mookie Betts. Only Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians has been a top-three MVP finalist three of the last four seasons. While Ramirez was robbed of an MVP award for 2020, he takes a spot in baseball that no one can take from him, the status as an elite player. Not even 2020 AL MVP and robber of the year, Jose Abreu is on the level of Ramirez.

Ramirez finished jus 74 points short of Abreu, making it a very contested race. Additionally, Shane Bieber, the AL Cy Young winner and finished fourth in MVP voting, just ahead of fifth-place player Mike Trout. The Yankees DJ LeMahieu finished third.

Ramirez joins Bob Fellear (1940), Larry Doby (1954), and Alberte Belle (1995) as the only Indians to finish in second place in the AL MVP voting.

While Abreu did have better power numbers than Ramirez, Ramirez was an actual MVP; as in he was the only reason the Indians were as competitive as they were. He hit .292, with 17 home runs and 46 RBI’s, while scoring 45 runs as well, all on his way to winning the Silver Slugger award for AL third basemen.

Now with Ramirez in rarified air, it’ll be interesting to see how his career plays out. He took over the face of the franchise spot from Francisco Lindor this year, and no one with any sense would argue that Lindor is better than Ramirez, at least not as an offensive player.

With his consistency and elite level of play now his defining characteristics, 2021 will surely be the first season where he’s viewed unanimously as “the guy” in Cleveland. It’s his team now.

On the NL side of things, Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman won the NL MVP award, beating out Mookie Betts and Manny Machado.