2025 Fantasy Baseball: Jose Ramirez Profile, Preview, Predictions
Jose "Barry Bonds" Ramirez was an absolete stud in 2024, finishing one home run shy of the 40/40 club. He looks motivated to build on his great season, and the fantasy market will fight for his profile this year.
3B – Jose Ramirez, CLE (ADP – 4.9)
Dear Jose Ramirez, I need to apologize for not respecting your talent over the past seven seasons. I body-shamed your profile for potential speed while considering you a left-handed version of Kirby Puckett. Your quest for more power came at the expense of batting average based on your rising fly-ball rate (48.2), and your weakness in contact batting average (.322 – under .325 over the past four seasons) lowered your ceiling in batting average. On a side note, I respectfully disagree with your May 2024 comment about being a better player than Barry Bonds. At age 31, the only stat you had better than him was fewer strikeouts (728 – 871). I know it was a different era, and you have less Juice in your bat.
Ramirez – .279 over 5,377 at-bats with 898 runs, 255 home runs, 864 RBIs, and 243 stolen bases while taking 600 walks.
Bonds – .288 over 5,537 at-bats with 1,121 runs, 334 home runs, 993 RBIs, and 380 stolen bases with 1,082 walks.
Your success last year in runs (114), home runs (39), RBIs (118), and stolen bases (41) led all third basemen, giving you the quadruple crown for his position.
Ramirez dominated left-handed pitching (.348/42/14/37/13 over 164 at-bats) in 2024. His best month came in May (.295 with 23 runs, 11 home runs, 33 RBIs, and four steals). He scored 70 runs and drove in 77 runs before the All-Star break over 369 at-bats. Ramirez finished with an elite RBI rate (21) but had fewer RBI chances (410) than in 2022 (438) and 2023 (452). Cleveland ranked 14th in runs scored (708), 46 more runs than they scored in 2023 (662 – 27th).
He remains challenging to strikeout (12.0%), but his walk rate (7.9) came in below his previous four seasons (10.0%). Ramirez ranked 105th out of 207 batters with 400 plate appearances in exit velocity (89.2 mph) and 122nd in hard-hit rate (39.7).
Fantasy Outlook: Over the past four seasons, Ramirez finished 5th (8.45), 5th (9.12), 21st (4.49), and 4th (12.04) in FPGscore for hitters. Based on his best three seasons over the last four years, he looks well worth his current ADP (4.9). I don’t respect Cleveland's supporting cast heading into 2025, suggesting regression in four categories for Ramirez. I saw a video over the past month where he looked trimmer, so he may be motivated to run more this year. I only see a .280/90/30/90/25 player with 600 at-bats, making him a late first-round pick in 15-team leagues.
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With 20+ years of experience in the high-stakes fantasy market, I aim to research and compete at the highest level in baseball and football each season. I've contributed as a writer/analyst for Sports Draft Daily, ScoutPro, Scout Fantasy, Fulltime Fantasy, FFToolbox, and Sports Illustrated Fantasy. I'm honored to be in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship Hall of Fame. My drafting philosophy is risk-averse yet open to betting on potential game-changers. I approach player selection with a neutral perspective, acknowledging that fantasy sports are inherently unpredictable due to injuries, performance dips, and managerial decisions. My work focuses on these main areas: - Season-long fantasy baseball and football - BestBall Baseball and Football Events - Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS): DraftKings, FanDuel, and Underdog - Long Shot Player Prop Parlays for NFL I participate in various leagues and contests, including NFBC, NFFC, RTSports, FFPC, DraftKings, Underdog Fantasy, FanDuel, and FFWC, with the goal of leveraging my extensive experience and research for success in each game format. A fantasy follower can expect in-depth profiles of NFL and MLB players, along with season-long and weekly projections for each fantasy football season. In addition, I have many strategy articles to help develop fantasy players' learning curves.