Jose Ramirez's Injury Wouldn't Stop Him From Leading 2022 Guardians to Playoffs

Cleveland's superstar third baseman doesn't get enough credit for his toughness, which has since been brought to light now that the season is over.

When you have the youngest roster in Major League Baseball and you're committed to trying to give as many guys as you can legitimate shots to prove themselves against the best-of-the-best, you need a glue guy in the locker room to keep things on track.

Cleveland has arguably the best example of such a player anywhere on planet earth in Jose Ramirez.

No, that's not an exaggeration.

Josey's lively personality and antics with his teammates are well-documented at this point. But perhaps we don't appreciate his toughness enough.

Ramirez played through a thumb injury for basically half the season and literally rehabbed that injury on a daily basis without ever calling attention to it. He has a torn UCL ligament in his thumb that will require surgery in the coming weeks to repair, but since there was no risk of worsening the damage, he decided to play through it.

What an incredible signal to the locker room: the highest paid player in franchise history brings infectious energy to the ballpark on a daily basis and never complained about an injury that would have taken most players out of the lineup.

Terry Francona even said that when the team was in Los Angeles and they had been meeting with the athletic training staff and team doctors to determine the best course of action, Ramirez told him, "not only am I not having surgery, I'm playing tomorrow."

Francona ripped up the notes he was making for the speech he was preparing to give his team about Josey's absence and that was that.

How tough is Jose Ramirez?

He told Tito, "Not only am I not having surgery, but I'm playing tomorrow."

Terry Francona and Chris Antonetti on what he means to the @CleGuardians #ForTheLand l @MrLapara pic.twitter.com/MiBH9Jpi32

— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) October 21, 2022

As it turned out, his attitude and his toughness appear to have rubbed off on his all-star teammate Andres Gimenez.

Gimenez played through a non-displaced fracture in his left thumb for the last month of the season. His injury wasn't quite severe enough to have surgery, but it was a bit more obvious that Andres was dealing with that injury after he was hit by a pitch in the final month of the year. The injury particularly bothered Gimenez during the A.L.D.S., but he didn't leave the lineup.

I think the thing Cleveland doesn't get enough credit for as an organization is the culture they have built. Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff are in charge of putting together the best roster they can, and Terry Francona and his coaching staff's job is to manage that group and get the best out of them. 

But their collective effort to build a championship culture can't be overlooked.

It's such a healthy organization because nobody ever seems to want to take credit for things. It's a group effort. Everyone shares the love when things go well and nobody points fingers when things are frustrating.

For as important as it is for team management to try and put those things in place, you need players to take that mentality and run with it. Jose Ramirez spearheads that effort, but his impact was felt in the way Gimenez, Josh Naylor, Shane Bieber and several other guys handled their business throughout the season.

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Should The Guardians Have Gone With Bieber? Aaron Civale Pulled In First Inning Of Game Five Of ALDS

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