JOSE RAMIREZ (Indians)
Before the season, many believed that the Cleveland Indians may be ready to start a rebuild after trading Francisco Lindor to the Mets. This lead to speculation that they may trade their other star hitter in 3rd baseman Jose Ramirez.
At the start of the season, the chatter to bring in Jose Ramirez to play 3rd base for the Atlanta Braves was almost deafening. With Austin Riley stepping things up this year, that chatter has died a bit. However, a perennial MVP candidate is the type of guy you can consider bringing on your team while moving Austin Riley to left field — if that is what it took.
Ramirez has arguably been one of the most underrated players in the league. Since 2016, when he started being a full-time player, he has averaged 5.89 WAR per 162 games played. For reference, Juan Soto averages 5.34.
From a full-body standpoint, Ramirez is playing better than Juan Soto. Ramirez is also on a cheap contract of 5 years and $26 million with a team option for the 2022-2023 seasons.
Unfortunately for the Atlanta Braves, acquiring Jose Ramirez only got harder now that Cleveland is in the thick of things being 9 games over .500, holding a wild card spot, and being only 2 games behind the White Sox for the division lead.
They also are not very strong offensively, so taking away their best hitter that is under a very team friendly contract does not make much sense at all, unless they received a trade package that was heavily in their favor.
At the trade deadline, anything can happen. It is part of why it is so fun to discuss trades. However, some trades are just extremely unlikely. Don’t get your hopes up for the Atlanta Braves to trade for these big names.