Even though Jose Ramirez's extension includes deferred money, that doesn't guarantee the Cleveland Guardians financial flexibility.
Deferred money has been a hotly debated topic across baseball ever since the Los Angeles Dodgers deferred a large sum of Shohei Ohtani’s lengthy contract and used a similar strategy with other free agents.
Now, the Cleveland Guardians are dipping their toes into the deferral game with Jose Ramirez’s new contract extension with the organization. Of J-Ram’s $175 million contract, $70 million of it is reportedly deferred.
At first, this appears like a great deal for the team. The organization can push some of the money down the road, which should give them more room to upgrade the roster in the short term.
Right?
Well, it doesn’t sound like that’s exactly how it works. When Chris Antonetti was asked about the deferred payments, the Guardians executive downplayed Cleveland actually receiving signfgant finally flexibility for the immediate future.
“Well, again, I think it's important to remember that Jose is going to receive all of that money. And the Major League Baseball rules require that we fund that deferred compensation at the time, really, it's earned. So there is some savings, but it's not that material in terms of how we can reallocate that elsewhere,” explained Antonetti.
Aug 19, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn ImagesThe deferred money didn’t appear to be a necessity for Ramirez either; he was only concerned about finishing his career in Cleveland, and the delayed payments were a means to an end of doing that.
“That type of terms come from the negotiations. That's not something I was handling that comes more from the ownership and the front office and my agent,” Ramirez said through his interprutor Auggie River.
“For me, the reassurance was to be able to complete my career here, and that's how they finally got in an agreement. But for me, it was more about having the certainty to play the remainder of my career here.”
So, even though Antonetti said the deferred money may give the Guardians some savings, it doesn’t sound like Cleveland will be able to sign a top-tier free agent because of Ramirez having deferred payments on his new deal.
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