Why The Cleveland Indians Should Trade Jose Ramirez Right Now

Before digging into the real topic of this story I want to take you back to October 1, 2000. After seven stellar seasons in an Indians uniform, free agency looms for Manny Ramirez. After hitting .350 and helping the Indians fight their way back into a playoff race there is little to no hope that the Tribe will be able to retain the super slugger with the reported $200 million contract he wants. In his final at bat at The Jake (and as an Indian) Manny homers as a 3-year-old Alex Kaufman watches.  

Now fast forward to October 2023, despite having stellar pitching yet again the Indians find themselves out of playoff contention, a 25-year-old Alex Kaufman watches as Jose Ramirez steps up to bat for his last appearance as an Indian. Is this really the cycle we want to continue putting ourselves through?  

Let me propose an alternative scenario, instead of fans piling in to see Jose’s last at bat in 2023 fans are coming to the ballpark to see the two 23-year-old top prospects the Indians received in the Jose Ramirez trade.

Why Trade Jose Now?

To be clear no one who calls themselves a true Indians fan can claim this team is better without Jose Ramirez on it. But as it’s been proven time and time again (take your pick of Manny, Victor Martinez, Jim Thome, Omar Vizquel) the Indians can’t or won’t, most likely won’t (cough, cough Paul Dolan) spend the money to keep marquis players in a Tribe uniform.

Now that the Indians have lost nine in a row and there seems to be no timetable for a return for Shane Bieber and or Aaron Civale now is the perfect time to get a great ROI for Jose. Even if Bieber and Civale came back tomorrow let’s be real is this team a contender? You are lying to yourself if you answer that question in the affirmative.

Who Can The Tribe Get Back?

Now who could the Indians get is an intriguing question that I have pondered for several days. The top choice without a doubt would be Bryan Reynolds the former rookie of the year outfielder on the Pittsburgh Pirates who continues to hit consistently. This would likely mean giving up Jose and at least one of the Indians rotation pieces to a rebuilding Pirates team.

Besides Reynolds at this year’s trade deadline there is not much else as far as MLB
ready prospects that the Indians could acquire (they are certainly not in the Kris Bryant or Trevor Story sweepstakes). Given the Indians recent trade tendency the most likely move would be to acquire several prospects and one borderline MLB talent. Another dream scenario, would be if packaging Ramirez with top prospect Nolan Jones would be enough to pry away Julio Rodriguez from the Mariners as they will likely move on from Kyle Seager.

If not now, certainly come the beginning of next season, one thing has become
clear, it is time for the Indians to move on from Jose. Or they run the risk of repeating the cycle yet again and letting a superstar walk out the door and getting nothing back.