Jose Ramirez is MLB.com's early favorite to win American League MVP next season.
As most of the high-impact free agents have signed with their new teams and organizations begin to set their focus on 2023 Spring Training, we can finally start to make predictions and guesses on how players will perform next season.
One player that is expected to have a big season is Jose Ramirez. MLB.com even has him projected to be the American League's MVP.
It's hard to argue with this projection.
MLB changed some rules heading into next year and the shift will finally be eliminated which has held Ramirez back in the past. Jose also played through a torn ligament in his thumb that he suffered all the way back in June. He was building a pretty strong case for MVP before this.
Even with the thumb injury, Ramirez went on to slash .280/.355/.514 with 126 RBI and 29 home runs. There's a reason that fans call him the "goat."
Teams will also now be forced to pitch to Ramirez more next season. He was intentionally walked 20 times which was the most in MLB. (Yes, this was more than Aaron Judge who was intentionally walked 19 times during his MVP season.)
Now Cleveland has a true power hitter in the clean-up slot. One of the biggest moves that the Guardians made this offseason was bringing in reigning Silver Slugger Josh Bell to play first base and hit behind Ramirez.
J-Ram has never won an MVP, but he's also been a contender year in and year out. He's been a top-five finisher four times in his career and was the runner-up during the 2020 season. Ramirez also finished third in MVP voting in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
Guardians fans already had a lot of reasons to be excited about 2023 and this projection is just another one to add to the list.
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