Cleveland Indians: What’s Going on With Jose Ramirez?

For three consecutive seasons Cleveland Indians infielder Jose Ramirez poster MVP-caliber seasons. Why now is he in such a disastrous slump?

On an afternoon in late May 2018, the Twitterverse was lit abuzz with a story out of the Dominican Republic alleging that Cleveland Indians slugger Jose Ramirez was to be suspended for PED use. At the time, Ramirez was batting .296 with a .389 OBP and .616 SLG and was certainly one of baseball’s best players.

Hours later, the story was classified as a hoax by team president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti who said that “in fact, we have confirmed with MLB that that’s the case. It’s an unsubstantiated report with no truth to it.”

Jose Ramirez did end up playing for the remainder of the 2018 season without a suspension. However, his stats dipped quite dramatically for the rest of the season.

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In 154 Post-rumor games, Ramirez’s hitting has suffered greatly, slashing a .229 BA with a .344 OBP and .415 SLG. What’s worse, since August 15, 2018 (89 games), Ramirez is hitting .183 with a .303 OBP and .297 SLG, resembling the player he was before his breakout season in 2016

This season, Ramirez has continued to struggle on the field, leaving many folks wondering how a once elite player could suddenly play so poorly. I propose – and this is just speculation – that we raise the question of PED-use again.

Who is the real Jose Ramirez? Is it the pre-2016 Ramirez who slashed .239 / .298 / .346 or the one who suddenly emerged as an MVP contender from 2016-2018 by slashing .290 / .368 / .511?

At just 26-years of age, this isn’t typically the time when an MLB player experienced a decline. In fact, prior to the rumors, Ramirez’s fWAR had been increasing with each season. So much so that from 2016-2018, Ramirez averaged close to a 6.5 fWAR per season. In 2019, his fWAR has dipped below 0 for the first time in his career.

Let me be clear, I’m not accusing the Cleveland Indians infielder of any wrongdoing. Instead, I’m merely raising a question that perhaps hasn’t been considered.