Pablo Rochat's delightfully unhinged projects
'Alexa, sing the song.'
I always enjoy whenever they cross my social media feeds and this one is no exception. It appears to be a work in progress, and really needs no further explanation but I will make two notes: 1) the tiny hats! 2) watch to the end for a great reaction.
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NEW YORK — The last time the Cleveland Guardians visited Yankee Stadium, during the ALCS in October, the customary José Ramírez prompt surfaced in a press conference with New York manager Aaron Boone. Why is Cleveland's six-time All-Star third baseman so underrated? Boone dismissed the notion altogether, saying the suggestion that Ramírez isn't appreciated made him 'want to rip my arms off and throw (them) at the TV.' Advertisement There's at least something to it, though. Ramírez hides from the spotlight in Cleveland. He puts up sparkling numbers, but he hasn't won an MVP award, delivered a signature postseason moment or set a bunch of records, like behemoths Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani. No matter the reason, even after six All-Star Game nods and six top-six MVP finishes, he's routinely mentioned as one of the sport's underrated stars. For years, Ramírez has shrugged off the idea. He's never craved attention. 'He's one of the best, and we think, in here (the clubhouse), the best in the league,' said teammate David Fry. 'I think it's the fact that he doesn't talk a whole lot and we're not a big market. If he were a Yankee, he'd probably be talked about 24/7 on TV. But because he's in Cleveland and doesn't want the spotlight, it doesn't get talked about as much.' For anyone unfamiliar with how Ramírez became an unheralded star — or for anyone itching for a reminder — here's a primer on baseball's best-kept secret: Ramírez will spend most or all of his career in Cleveland, a David in a land of big-market Goliaths. No New York or Los Angeles circus, no mind-bending contract figures, no commercials or ad campaigns. No attention, which fuels the persistent chatter about him flying under the radar. He did once have his own salsa brand, plus a medium-roast coffee blend (with notes of cocoa and hints of nuts and citrus). Ramírez only ever cared about being noticed when he ran amok on donkey-filled baseball diamonds in the Dominican Republic, with scouts fixated on everyone else, not the runt of the teenage prospect corps. Ramón Peña discovered him in 2009 — almost by accident. Peña coveted catcher Jorge Alfaro, but he became enamored with the 140-pound slap hitter. Even with flashy batting averages and stolen-base totals, Ramírez was never considered a can't-miss prospect in the minor leagues. He was usually the smallest guy on the field, which led Cleveland's evaluators to forecast him as the successor to utility man Mike Aviles. Instead, he's tracking to carve out space between Tim Raines and Pee Wee Reese in the Baseball Hall of Fame directory. And in Cleveland, for a franchise that dates to 1901, he could wind up on the Mount Rushmore of performers, in large part because of his longevity with the club, a rarity for a franchise that tends to ship out stars before they achieve generational wealth. Advertisement Ramírez woke up on the final day of spring training in 2022 and directed his agent to end several weeks of choppy negotiations with the Guardians' front office and strike a deal. The Guardians were prepared to trade him to the San Diego Padres or Toronto Blue Jays if they couldn't agree to terms that afternoon. The team had split-squad duties in Arizona, so the necessary parties were spread across the valley — and the country. General manager Mike Chernoff was flying back to Cleveland. Ramírez finished a five-inning assignment at Chase Field, and convened with president Chris Antonetti and assistant GM Matt Forman in the manager's office to exchange final offers. Agustín Rivero, the team interpreter and Ramírez's lifeline, left his post as first-base coach in Scottsdale and, in his navy uniform, hailed a Lyft to Chase Field. Owner Paul Dolan, in Cleveland, and agent Rafa Nieves, in California, joined on the phone. Chernoff landed in Cleveland and convinced his Uber driver to keep private the franchise-altering conversation he was about to overhear. 'Five stars and an extra tip,' Chernoff said. With everyone present in one form and one time zone or another, they hammered out the details, which guaranteed Ramírez $141 million over seven seasons, plus a no-trade clause. They sped through the process so DeMarlo Hale, the manager that day at Chase Field, could shower and change in his office, the most inconceivable negotiating room imaginable. Ramírez is tethered to Cleveland through the 2028 season, when he'll be 36 years old — 19 years after he signed with the franchise. 'So many guys in this game are about building their brand,' Fry said. 'He just wants to win.' Ramírez's 13th big-league season is tracking to be one of his most prolific. He is batting a career-best .330 with a .939 OPS. He has exhibited no signs of slowing down, even at 32. He snapped a 21-game hitting streak, his longest as a big-leaguer, on Friday, but he has since rattled off three consecutive multi-hit games. He's on pace for 30 homers, 36 doubles and 44 stolen bases. Advertisement After a couple of rocky seasons at the plate, Ramírez blossomed in 2016, with a .312 average, 46 doubles and 22 stolen bases. The following season, he added power to his repertoire, as he totaled 91 extra-base hits, including 29 homers. The year after that, he drew 106 walks, racked up 81 extra-base hits (with 39 homers) and swiped 34 bases. Those gaudy totals have since become the standard, not the surprise. He has two third-place finishes in the MVP balloting and one second-place finish since the start of 2017. Ramírez is adept at yanking fastballs into the outfield seats, and pitchers often find themselves without a choice but to challenge him with precisely the pitch he craves, because he refuses to chase or whiff at anything else. That's how a guy who gives up eight inches and about 60 pounds to Jim Thome could threaten Thome's franchise home run record (337) as soon as the 2027 season. 'When he's struggling, he's hitting, like, .250, .260, which, for everybody else is a great year,' Fry said. 'And then he has a switch where he's like, 'I'm going to go be the best player in the world. I'm just going to steal every base. Now I'm going to hit doubles and homers.' He's incredible.' José Ramírez blasts his 10th home run of the year, giving him his 10th straight season with 10+ homers 💪 — MLB (@MLB) May 31, 2025 In the summer of 2015, Ramírez was demoted to Triple-A Columbus, where Rouglas Odor served as both the hitting coach and first-base coach. Ramírez reached first one day and was nearly picked off by a right-handed pitcher. He stood up, brushed the dirt off his jersey and took an even larger lead off the bag. 'I'm like, 'What are you doing?'' Odor recalled. Then, Ramírez stole second. The close call, Ramírez later told Odor, only motivated him more to swipe second base. Advertisement 'I thought, 'Man, this kid is special,'' Odor said. Through the years, Ramírez has consistently registered above-average sprint speed, but nothing that would suggest he's a threat to steal 30-plus bases. 'It's his intelligence,' Odor said. Ramírez routinely ranks at or near the top of the leaderboard for FanGraphs' base running metric. Even at the age of 31 last year, he piled up a career-high 41 steals. He's always searching for a way to gain an extra 90 feet, either when an outfielder takes a circuitous route to a single or when an infielder leaves a base unattended or, simply, whenever he pleases. 'He hustles every day,' said Guardians pitcher Tanner Bibee. 'He doesn't dog it down the line. He's looking for an extra 90 feet at all times. And he brings the best out of everyone else. There's a reason everyone respects him. I hope he knows that. But everyone in here respects him so much, because of all that.' In late May, Ramírez stood on third base with one out and the Guardians trailing the Tigers by one in the eighth inning. Odor, now the Guardians' third-base coach, told him that on any hard-hit grounder, he would stand no chance to score, so he needed to get caught in a rundown so the club still had a scoring threat. Angel Martínez socked a grounder to first base, where Spencer Torkelson charged and threw home. Ramírez never hesitated, dashing down the line 'before contact,' Odor said. A nifty plunge into the plate evened the score. 'There are just very few people in the game who score on that ball,' said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. 'The jump he gets, the slide, you name it. He's one of the best baserunners, if not the best baserunner, in baseball.' Ramírez fell one homer short of a 40/40 season last year, and he would have been the second player ever (along with Alfonso Soriano) with 40 homers, 40 steals and 40 doubles in a season. The storyline was buried beneath coverage of Ohtani's pursuit of 50/50, and Ramírez officially missed the milestone when rain washed away the Guardians' regular season finale. Advertisement Ramírez claimed he didn't care too much about the statistical feat, but he admitted in March that he used it as motivation to trim fat and add muscle over the winter. He has joked at times about aiming for a 50/50 season, or an 80/80 season or, even, a 100/100 season, and with his dry sense of humor, it can be difficult to decipher what he actually deems attainable, especially since he followed up his 80/80 proclamation with, 'Nothing's impossible.' He needs 34 homers and 41 steals to become the ninth player in league history with 300 of each. He needs 84 homers and 91 steals to join Barry Bonds as the only players with 350 of each. No one would have predicted such an ascent. And, as Judge and Ohtani ambush the record books and, understandably, hog the headlines, many are still learning how a stocky, long-overlooked, 5-foot-8 infielder has charted a path that could lead to Cooperstown. 'It's the beauty of baseball,' Vogt said. 'It doesn't matter what size you are, what you look like, where you're from. If you can hit, you can hit. If you can field, you can field. If you can pitch, you can pitch. That's the beauty of baseball. Size does give you some advantage sometimes, but it's all about the skill, the art. And José just continues to amaze me every single day, getting to watch him play. He's right up there with (Judge and Ohtani).'
