The Guardians managed without Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez. They\u2019d rather not have to do that again.<\/p>\n
Ram\u00edrez was activated from the injury list on July 22 after the seven-time All-Star third baseman missed five weeks following left-hand surgery. Cleveland stayed near the top of the AL Central while he was out, a testament to the young club\u2019s depth and resolve.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last five weeks could have been a lot different, and it wasn\u2019t,\u201d manager Stephen Vogt said. \u201cWe kept our heads above water. You can use all the cliches you want, but we did not let the last five weeks determine the rest of our season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some low points. We had some high points, some in between. But really proud of what this group did over the last five weeks and we\u2019ve got a lot of work left.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ram\u00edrez had been sidelined since getting hurt against Detroit on June 13 and having an operation to remove the hamate bone in his left hand.<\/p>\n
The Guardians managed to stay afloat without Ram\u00edrez, going 15-15 and keeping pace with the division leaders. Cleveland entered its July 22 game against Minnesota in a virtual tie for first place with the Chicago White Sox.<\/p>\n
Ram\u00edrez was in the starting lineup, batting second and playing third in the July 22 game.<\/p>\n
Ram\u00edrez did not go on a minor league rehab assignment before being activated. The Guardians trusted him throughout his recovery. He had a similar injury to his right hand in 2019, the only other time he\u2019s been on the injured list.<\/p>\n
\u201cHosey\u2019s about winning,\u201d Vogt said. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to come back if he doesn\u2019t believe that he can help us win. So it\u2019s full trust in him, full trust in the medical staff. Everybody is on board with him being back in there today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vogt said he would hold Ram\u00edrez back a little at the start.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s going to be some limitations for him at first, but we\u2019re going to be thoughtful about how much he plays, when he plays, things of that nature,\u201d Vogt said. \u201cBut he\u2019s done a great job of getting his body ready, which is most important and the wrist is feeling good.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make room for Ram\u00edrez, the Guardians optioned outfielder Kahlil Watson to Triple-A Columbus.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old Ram\u00edrez, who owns numerous offensive club records, was batting .239 with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs in 72 games before getting hurt. The Guardians aren\u2019t the same without him in the lineup, and his mere presence should help a team that has struggled to score.<\/p>\n
Watson played well in his stint with Guardians, batting .239 with one homer and 11 RBIs in 27 games. On Tuesday night, he made a game-ending leaping catch down the right-field line while crashing into the padded wall.<\/p>\n
Vogt said Watson\u2019s contributions made his demotion a difficult decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cKhalil handled it like a true pro,\u201d Vogt said. \u201cHe understood clearly. Not happy. No one wants to leave, but just the messaging was you came here when we needed you and you helped us. We saw an unbelievably talented player with Khalil Watson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to help us win a ton of games for a long time. It\u2019s just not his time right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Ram\u00edrez, the Guardians could soon have outfielder Angel Martinez back as well. He\u2019s been out since June 13 with a non-displaced fracture when he fouled a pitch off his left foot. Martinez is on a rehab assignment at Columbus and appears on the brink of being activated.<\/p>\n
Vogt said Martinez will play nine innings on Wednesday and be re-evaluated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Guardians managed without Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez. They\u2019d rather not have to do that again. Ram\u00edrez was activated from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,75108,7677,154],"class_list":["post-383003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}