Why Guardians superstar Jose Ramirez might never win an MVP

Jose Ramirez may no longer be one of the MLB's most underrated players, but when it's all said and done where could he rank in terms of all-time greats.

Sep 9, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez (11) celebrates his solo home run in the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images | David Richard-Imagn Images

Jose Ramirez may no longer be one of the MLB's most underrated players, but when it's all said and done, he could be an all-time great who never won any hardware.

When Ramirez became one of just 25 players to record 250+ home runs and stolen bases back on May 1st, he joined the likes of Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Carlos Beltran, Alex Rodriguez and Rickey Henderson. If we take just those five players alone (20 perecent of the list), they add up to a whopping 13. If we add up MVPs won by the other players on that list we get to over 20 collective MVP Awards.

The list of players without MVPs on the list include Craig Biggio, Gary Sheffield, Kirk Gibson, and Eric Davis.

At various points he has lost MVP battles to: Mike Trout in 2016 (Ramirez finished 17th), Jose Altuve in 2017 (Ramirez finished 3rd), Mookie Betts in 2018 (Ramirez finished 3rd again), Jose Abreu in 2020 (Ramirez finished 2nd somehow), Shohei Ohtani in 2021 (Ramirez finished 6th), Aaron Judge in 2022 (Ramirez finished 4th), Ohtani again in 2023 (Ramirez finished 10th) and Judge again in 2024 (Ramirez finished 5th).

Perhaps the baseball gods are punishing Ramirez, but that is absolutely unfair to have to consistently compete against five surefire first ballot Hall of Famers in your prime for an MVP award. And to make matters even worse, four of those years there was absolutely no chance because Ohtani and Judge were doing things that literally have never been done before on a baseball diamond. All this research just proves how much of an absolute robbery that award was in 2020 for Jose Abreu.

Regardless, Ramirez has done it all with a smile on his face, cracking jokes, demolishing "home run pitches" and playing on perhaps the most team friendly contract in the history of baseball. There is something so unbelievably endearing about the way that he plays the game, not only with hustle, heart and intelligence but because he chose to make Cleveland his home when he had every opportunity not to.

Based on the young up-and-coming talent like Bobby Witt Jr. and Gunnar Henderson, and in the American League and the continued dominance of annual contenders like Judge, the hope of seeing Ramirez win an MVP may be dwindling.

Guardians fans can only hope that when the day comes for him to be on the ballot for Cooperstown people do not forgot how extremely talented and succesful a player he was during this stretch.