Shortly before Opening Day, the Guardians and star José Ramírez agreed to an extension that’ll keep him in Cleveland through the 2028 campaign. Ramírez was already under club control for two seasons at a combined $26MM via a pair of options, and it was initially reported the team would lock in those options while tacking on $124MM over five subsequent years.
That’s not quite the case, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports (on Twitter) that Ramírez will be guaranteed $141MM over seven seasons. That comes out to $115MM in new money (assuming the Guardians would’ve exercised their 2023 option). It’s treated as a seven-year deal with an average annual value of approximately $20.1MM for competitive balance tax purposes, although it seems likely Cleveland’s payroll won’t approach luxury tax levels anyhow.
Heyman specifies the year-by-year breakdown of the extension:
2022: $22MM
2023: $14MM
2024: $17MM
2025: $19MM
2026: $21MM
2027: $23MM
2028: $25MM
Ramírez’s deal contains a full no-trade clause, as initially reported. It also includes various incentives upon awards finishes. While the guarantee is a bit lighter than initially believed, the three-time All-Star makes more money up-front than he would’ve had the Guardians simply tacked on five seasons of new money in 2024 and beyond.
He’d initially been set to play this season on a $12MM salary, but he’ll nearly double that figure with this new agreement. The deal brings Cleveland’s player payroll for this season up to around $69MM, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. That’s well above last season’s approximate $50MM mark, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, although it still checks in 27th league-wide.
I don’t know what he like in Ohio
Rock h Roll HIF?
The Cleveland Orchestra is one of the best in the world.
2nd best hospital on Earth?
The cost of living, obviously
Mostly, not being around people like you. Ahahaha!
Read somewhere that he liked the idea of being on one team his entire career to help his hall of fame chances.
Smart move by the Guardians!
The Gaurdians Need to build a roster around Ramirez
Problem is it is hard to do that when most of their top prospects are SS/2B types.
*SPIDERS
Not my money, not my business. Just happy to watch him play.
He should fire his agent…he got AlbiesED!
It sounds like he knew he was taking a big discount but wanted to stay in Cleveland and knew it was the only way. Bizarre but his life. Also $141M is probably about $140M more than I will make in my whole life.
ALBIES HAS A WORLD SERIES RING.
What does that have to do with the comment?
Nothing. That’s just Trolly Trollington.
The Ramirez extension does represent a home team discount by a player willing to leave some money on the table, but let’s reiterate that Ramirez still gets 141 million dollars counting the option year that was exercised…hardly chicken feed. No one sober could possibly compare this contract to the Albies extension. No comparison.
Imagine liking Cleveland so much that you’d take a $10M+/yr discount to stay there.
No imagine you are getting $141 million.
Bestno5. Beautifully said.
The fans love him and the press fawns and dotes over him. He is never booed. I think that is worth something.
Not uprooting your financially secure and happily settled wife and young family might also come into play. I would suggest that’s more valuable than press, fans and excess cash.
He would’ve made $200mil at least in free agency.
Maybe. Or maybe he could have gone on the roller coaster that Carlos Correa went on. That rollercoaster is still going. That cannot be fun.
Corrrea got a 275mil offer so it was a self imposed rollercoaster
@ Dutch Vander Linde
Which he was two long years away from.
Or don’t you get that?
Which means he also might not have gotten squat.
This is a GUARANTEE.
What is wrong with people?
It being front loaded is a good idea by the team. They had payroll room (they had enough to pursue both Winker and Olson in a trade), and realistically nothing else to spend on unless you really like Conforto. Front loading means Jose can invest some of that and hopefully watch it grow, where $10m in 2022 is likely worth more than $10m in 2025 considering inflation. Worke for both sides quite well.