Jose Ramirez’s mid-season decline cost him the All-Star start

Jose Ramirez not getting the starting nod is fair.

The Cleveland Guardians have an unabashed, big-time fan in this writer. World Series runs or a 100-loss season, I love baseball. I’m a stat junkie and I gobble it all up. I speak about Jody Gerut, Karem Garcia, and Bill Selby more than anyone you know. My loving defense of John MacDonald getting robbed of a Gold Glove could be my eventual dissertation. To say I rep the Guardians is minimizing the truth in that. I don’t think they’re perfect minds, you and I do offer criticism when it’s warranted. I just want to paint a picture of who I am, so you know that this is the utter truth; Jose Ramirez didn’t deserve to start in the 2022 All-Star Game.

Rafael Devers, at least to me, is the obvious name to start at third for the Midsommer Classic, and I hate the Red Sox, so you know for me to say this isn’t easy. Though it is true.

Devers has had a better season than Ramirez. He’s got more hits, more home runs, better splits, and his team is over .500. Ramirez has more RBIs, more walks, and more stolen bases, to be fair, but I don’t think all stats carry the same weight. I think a guy’s splits are the most important, followed by RBIs. Devers has a better batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS than Ramirez.

To me, that puts Deveres ahead of Ramirez on the depth chart.

Jose Ramirez was the ideal starter at one point but what happened?

The Cleveland Guardians skid happened around the time that Jose Ramirez hurt his thumb in Los Angeles. They won the series but he only played the first game. Then the next series saw the Guards win but Ramirez was clearly a different player. Since that series, Ramirez’s batting average has fallen from .305 to .290, about 15 points. He also has only hit one home run since the Dodgers series and has only had two games where he’s driven in some runs; four RBI in total.

It’s no wonder the team is skidding, as it’s no wonder that Ramirez is hurt. He’s hurt badly too. His swing is a bit off, and that’s no surprise, as the thumb is pretty important to holding a bat. If his thumb is still bothering him, there’s no way he can properly hold, let alone swing a bat, with a compromised grip.

Hopefully, The Guardians convince Ramirez to sit out the All-Star game, while holding him out for a week before and after the game; or at the very least the series before and after the All-Star break.

Ramirez needs time to heal or this season is going to get away from the club.