Guardians Ramirez ‘always hunting’ on basepaths
CLEVELAND — Jose Ramirez is a perennial MVP candidate. He’s the hitter the Guardians want up in the game’s biggest moments. But at the plate isn’t where he’s at his most exciting.
Rather it’s on the basepaths where Ramirez thrills.
Those are the moments when his helmet is left in the dust as he turns a single into a double or avoids the tag at home plate when most runners wouldn’t have dared to even go for it.
“He sees the whole field in rapid time,” said third base coach Mike Sarbaugh. “It’s something you can’t teach, and he’s one of the best, for sure.”
What makes Ramirez such a dynamic baserunner is more than pure speed. He ranks in the 67th percentile in sprint speed, according to Statcast, so he’s quick, for sure. But he isn’t 100-meterdash level fast.
There are dozens of faster players in the major leagues. In fact, going by sprint speed, five of them — Amed Rosario, Myles Straw, Andres Gimenez, Will Brennan and Steven Kwan — are in the Guardians lineup.
As manager Terry Francona has often said, it’s Ramirez’s “mental clock” that separates him from the other great baserunners.
“Jose is, I think, the best I’ve ever seen,” Francona said. “It’s like another sense, and I don’t know if you can teach people that sense, but when you know where the ball is, you’re going to be a much more intelligent baserunner.”
Fangraphs’ Base Running (BSR) is an all-encompassing metric that takes into account stolen bases, being caught while stealing, taking extra bases, being thrown out, etc. And who leads the majors among qualified players since 2018?
Ramirez, with a 34.8. There’s just one player within shouting distance of him: Trea Turner, at 34.6. Nobody else has reached 28.
“If you watch a game, anytime he gets on base he’ll put his sliding pad on right away, and he’s always scanning the outfield,” said J.T. Maguire, a major league staff assistant who previously worked as the organization’s baserunning coordinator. “He’s ready to go from that first pitch, where some guys may not run through that mental checklist like he does.”
It’s the little things that make the difference. It’s the tiny micro-elements that even in a stadium of 30,000-plus people, few might notice Like how he rarely speaks to the first baseman. Like how he gives the outfield alignment an extra glance. When contact is made, Ramirez has already made calculations. He knows what’s unfolding around him, and he instinctually understands what will happen next while an inner clock tells him when that will happen.
“He’s always hunting,” Kwan said. “I remember one time we were in Chicago and the left fielder played it really bad, literally a casual single, and he just never stopped running and turned it into a double. That’s the kind of thing you don’t see on a scoresheet. It shows double, but that was a single for 99% of the rest of baseball.”
Ramirez might lose control of his helmet. But on the basepaths, he’s the most controlled runner in the game.