CLEVELAND — Cleveland Guardians third baseman José Ramírez has earned his fourth career American League Silver Slugger Award, the team announced on Thursday night.
Ramírez's fourth Silver Slugger ties him with Albert Belle’s club record notched between 1993 and 1996.
Over the 2022 season, Ramírez batted .280 with 44 doubles, 5 triples, 29 home runs and a career-high of 126 RBIs all while playing with a torn ligament in his thumb sustained in mid-June.
Ramírez finished eighth overall in the AL in bWAR—Baseball Reference’s Win Above Replacement statistic—with 6.0.
WAR, as laid out by MLB, is defined as:
WAR measures a player's value in all facets of the game by deciphering how many more wins he's worth than a replacement-level player at his same position (e.g., a Minor League replacement or a readily available fill-in free agent).
For example, if a shortstop and a first baseman offer the same overall production (on offense, defense and the basepaths), the shortstop will have a better WAR because his position sees a lower level of production from replacement-level players.
As for Ramírez, he now ties with Kenny Lofton for most seasons with a bWAR of 6.0 or higher:
- Tris Speaker, 7 (1916)
- Nap Lajoie, 7 (1903-1910)
- Lou Boudreau, 5 (1940-1948)
- Jose Ramirez, 4 (2017-2022)
- Kenny Lofton, 4 (1992-1998)
Ramírez leads MLB in extra-base hits, with 416 since 2017. Ramírez is just the second third baseman from Cleveland to amass at least three seasons of 100-or-more RBIs, the first being Al Rosen.
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