The debate over whether star third baseman José Ramírez’s career is being wasted in Cleveland has resurfaced. It comes after a fan took out a full-page ad in the Plain Dealer urging Guardians ownership to spend more.
Ideastream Public Media’s sports commentator Terry Pluto questions what it really means to say a player’s career is being “wasted.”
Ramírez has spent 13 years with the Guardians. In 2022, he signed a seven-year, $141 million contract extension.
“He’s been on winning teams 11 times in those 13 years," Pluto said. "He’s been to the playoffs seven times. He’s been to the World Series once. In three of the last four years, they’ve won their division.”
Pluto said many elite players have had far less team success. Mike Trout, for example, has been to the playoffs once in 14 years with the Los Angeles Angels.
“You could argue (Trout’s) career’s been wasted, but they actually spent a whole bunch of money there trying to win and they’ve had different owners and it just hasn’t happened,” Pluto said.
Trout has a 12-year, $426.5 million contract with the Angels that runs through the 2030 season. The Angels' payroll was approximately $126.9 million in 2025, ranking them 13th among the 30 Major League Baseball teams, according to USA Today.
The Guardians had a roughly $100.5 million payroll in 2025, ranking 25th in the league.
Former Cleveland star shortstop Francisco Lindor signed a 10-year deal with the New York Mets worth $341 million through 2031. The Mets entered the 2025 season with Major League Baseball’s largest payroll at approximately $323.1 million, according to USA Today, yet failed to make the postseason.
“He’s been there five years since leaving Cleveland,” Pluto said. “Lindor has been to the playoffs twice."
Pluto also mentioned New York Yankees star outfielder Aaron Judge, who's under a nine-year, $360 million contract that runs through the 2031. The Yankees had the third-highest payroll at $293.4 million in 2025.
“He’s been with the Yankees for the last 10 years," Pluto said. "How many World Series has he won in that period? He hasn’t won any. He’s been to one and they lost.”
Pluto said it’s not simple to judge a player’s legacy based on wins or payroll alone.
“Are the Yankees or are the Mets wasting their careers of Francisco Lindor and Aaron Judge? I don’t know," Pluto said. "What’s the standard? I’ve never gotten a good answer from that."
Pluto argued that baseball’s postseason success isn’t simply about money.
“The teams that are in right now, what amounts to baseball’s final four, have the Dodgers, they’re the gigantic spenders," Pluto said. "And then you have Milwaukee (which) spends more than Cleveland but is not a big spender. And then you kind of have two teams sort of in the middle of the pack in Toronto and Seattle.”
Pluto said Ramírez himself has never said he feels stuck or disappointed in Cleveland.
“No, but I think he gets frustrated at the end of the year," Pluto said. "He’d like to go deeper (in the postseason). But I’ve never heard that. If anything, he’s always said how much he loves playing here.
“Players have different interests,” Pluto added. “Frankie Lindor not only wanted a gigantic contract, which he got, he also wanted a bigger market. José has, like, zero interest in marketing. He’s a little bit kind of like, leave me alone, let me play ball.”
Still, Pluto said the Guardians could do more to reward and support their star.
“José signed a big discount contract to stay here," Pluto said. "He has three years left, and I think it’s like $21, $23 and $25 million over the next three years. They can do what they did four years ago, which is rework that contract and give him some more money. They can go out and try to get another veteran hitter... They could try to get a veteran hitter to play the outfield and hit behind him."
But Pluto said criticism of the Guardians’ ownership misses the larger question.
“When you throw out this narrative, what constitutes a career that’s not wasted? Tell me. Give me the standard,” Pluto said. “Is it three World Series in 10 years? Is it a bunch of payroll that has to be the highest in baseball or the top three or top five in baseball, even if we lose, but as long as we’re spending a bunch of money badly, that counts? What is it?”
Pluto said most people can’t answer that question.
“Basically, the person who answers that is the player," Pluto said. "That’s why I think people have to look at these players and realize it isn’t all just on some spreadsheet. Think about what you’re saying when you say a career’s wasted. If it were simply about which teams spend the most money every year, it always would be the Yankees and Dodgers or the Mets and the Red Sox. Those would be the ones always in the World Series and they’re not.”
