Ramirez still has three seasons and $69 million remaining on the seven-year extension he signed with Cleveland in April 2022. Gomez writes that this new extension will pay Ramirez $106 million more over the 2029-32 seasons, but there will be some restructuring of Ramirez’s salary. According to Heyman, the $175 million Ramirez is owed over the next seven seasons will now include $70 million in deferred money.
Assuming the extension is finalized, it should ensure Ramirez remains in a Guards uniform for his entire career, only further cementing his place as a Cleveland baseball legend. Ramirez signed with the organization as an international free agent in 2009 at age 17 and went on to hit .279/.353/.504 with 285 home runs and 287 steals (out of 349 opportunities) over 6,759 plate appearances. Between his strong offense and impressive glovework at third base, Ramirez has amassed 57.6 bWAR over his career – the fifth-highest total of any player in Indians/Guardians history.
Ramirez turned 33 last September but shows no signs of slowing down as he hit .283/.360/.503 with 30 home runs and a career-best 44 steals over 673 PA. These big numbers and his leading role in the Guardians’ late-season surge to the AL Central title helped Ramirez earn a third-place finish in the AL MVP voting. While the MVP trophy continues to elude Ramirez, he has now racked up one second-place finish (in 2020), three third-place finishes, and three other top-six finishes during his stellar career.
While Ramirez continues to provide elite production, committing $106 million to a player (especially during his age-36-39 seasons) is not insignificant for a team with a lower payroll like the Guardians. The new money in Ramirez’s extension represents the third-largest guarantee Cleveland has ever given to a player, behind only Ramirez’s previous extension and their seven-year, $106.5 million extension with the since-traded Andres Gimenez in 2023. That being said, the $70 million in deferred money will lower the extension’s current price tag and allow for some additional payroll flexibility for the front office.
This is the third extension Ramirez has signed with Cleveland, as his first multi-year pact with the team was a five-year, $26 million deal for the 2017-2021 seasons that included a pair of club options. Obviously, Ramirez significantly outperformed his salary in that deal, and after exercising their 2022 option to retain Ramirez, the Guardians and the third baseman worked out the second extension, adding five years and $124 million in new money to the new deal.
The Guardians were known to have explored trade scenarios involving Ramirez prior to the 2022 extension, as it has long been the organization’s practice to trade star players before reaching free agency. While not every star deal has worked out, the Guards have made enough of these trades to replenish their system with younger (and cheaper) talent while avoiding the higher price tags that come with players nearing the end of their arbitration control.
Ramirez is the exception to the rule. The seven-time All-Star has been open about how much he loves playing in Cleveland, and he has backed up that stance by leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table to take on the Guards not once, but now twice. Of course, it remains to be seen how productive Ramirez will still be at the end of the 2028 season, but this added $106 million can be seen as a thank you to a star player for his years of service, as well as an investment in the idea that Ramirez will continue to produce big numbers. If you take the deferred money out of the equation, the Guardians will pay Ramirez just $105 million over the 2026-32 seasons.
The timing of the extension is interesting, as there apparently wasn’t a huge rush to add more years to a deal that already ran through 2028. However, the Guards may have wanted to get something done before the next collective bargaining agreement, as rumors persist that the league (as part of their overall desire to curb gaming spending) could at least look at some types of restrictions against deferred money in contracts. The Dodgers have most famously included postponements in many of their high-priced deals in recent years, though many teams in both major and minor markets have also pursued postponements, with Cleveland’s new pact with Ramirez serving as the latest example of the latter.
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