Cleveland Guardians star Jose Ramirez winning MLB lockout avatar war

The MLB lockout is here, and while John Q. Public has yet to be impacted by any missed Cleveland Guardians games, fans are getting their first taste of the work stoppage via a simple trip to their team’s favorite website.

MLB removed player pictures from their websites, so when you go to CLEGuardians.com and look up someone, let’s say Jose Ramirez, a generic place holder image appears. It’s the same picture that appear for every player in the game.

MLB got hammered for their decision to take down the player pictures, all the Twitter experts were quick to remind us that MLB has a problem promoting its stars.

MLB responded by stating they were following legal advice. I know it’s cold, but I don’t blame the owners here. If you don’t think the players union wouldn’t try and sue the owners for using their likeness without a collective bargaining agreement in place, well, I’ve got oceanfront property in Columbus to sell you.

Anyway, several players took this “slight” as a chance to blast the owners, by changing the image on their socials to match what MLB put on its website.

Cleveland Guardians Jose Ramirez pokes fun at owners overMLB lockout

Of course, our G.O.A.T did it better than others. 

Ramirez used this opportunity to build his brand, unveiling a new logo, JR 11. Perhaps it isn’t new, but I haven’t seen it before. He also dons that famous necklace, which pays homage to the movie, Major League.

The Guardians didn’t make much news before the MLB lockdown in terms of player transactions. While other teams were hanging out records amounts of cash, Cleveland made the news for having a payroll that for now, anyway, is lower than the annual average salary of Max Scherzer.

The Guard are moving merchandise, though, as some of the fan base is showing excitement over the name change.

Hopefully they’ll get to wear that gear on the regularly scheduled Opening Day, because this work stoppage could drag on for months. If Spring Training is altered by the lockout, then lookout. All bets are off.