Hey, quick question. Would you like to lock up the best offensive player your franchise has had in a decade for virtually nothing? Yeah? OK cool, sign here.
First reported by Jon Heyman, the Cleveland Guardians have made the move we all knew was coming by exercising José Ramírez’s $12 million option for 2022. If you want to be cynical, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to be a Guardian in 2022, but right now it means he’s on track to return to Cleveland in 2022.
This move was, of course, just a formality. The option was on the club to pick up and there was never a chance they wouldn’t do it.