Guardians manager Terry Francona: Jose Ramirez has 'off the charts' baseball IQ

Pitchers are only giving Jose Ramirez one pitch — if that — to hit each time he steps to the plate. That's all he's needed.

Ramirez has been a consistent MVP candidate for the past six seasons but has recently reached new heights, hitting .297 with a .391 on-base percentage and a 1.039 OPS entering Tuesday night's game against the Kansas City Royals. He has been even hotter recently, hitting .364 with three home runs, two doubles, a triple, 10 RBIs and two stolen bases in a six-game span.

He has arguably been baseball's most dangerous hitter. And teams are doing anything they can to avoid attacking him.

"He doesn't get a lot of pitches to hit. He might get one during his at-bat," said manager Terry Francona. "He's just so smart. We've been fortunate some times where they've had to pitch to him. Owen [Miller] and [Josh] Naylor have swung the bat well enough intermittently where it makes you think if we put a couple men on, it's really helped."

Take the last two games against the Royals as an example. In Monday night's 7-3 win, Ramirez drove in a run in the first inning and later hit a two-run home run, which set up Andres Gimenez's go-ahead, game-winning home run in the 8th inning. Tuesday night, the Royals decided to not let Ramirez beat them, telling starter Daniel Lynch to intentionally walk him twice.

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In his third at-bat, the Royals decided they'd pitch to him. And the very first pitch Ramirez saw was sent back up the middle for a single. In that stretch, Ramirez saw one pitch and reached base three times.

“I don’t even know how to explain it. Really, it’s crazy," said Zach Plesac when asked what it's like to watch what Ramirez does at the plate. "Honestly, it’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen and there’s a lot of guys in the dugout who feel the same way. He’s the best player in the game, hands down. I don’t care who wants to challenge him."

Ramirez has finished in the top-6 in American League MVP voting in five of the last six seasons, and he has been an MVP finalist (top-3) four times in that span. If the season were to end today, Ramirez might have made his case to end that run of second- and third-place finishes and instead take home his first MVP.

Only three position players in baseball have more than 30.0 fWAR (Wins Above Replacement, which takes into account every facet of the game and states how many wins above the average replacement that each player is worth to their team) since the beginning of the 2017 season. That list includes Mookie Betts (32.3), Mike Trout (31.9) and Ramirez (31.0).

This season in the American League, it has been a race between Trout and Ramirez, who both entered Tuesday with 3.0 fWAR, which is an 11.6 fWAR pace. That would be the best season by fWAR for a position player in franchise history.

To Francona, it isn't just the talent. It's his baseball IQ that has separated him from almost the entire pack. It's knowing exactly how pitchers are going to attack him and adjust to him each at-bat.

"[He's] pretty good, huh?" Francona said after Monday night's win. "I don't know if people know how 'baseball smart' he is. You can't be this good the way he does it without being ultra intelligent about what they're trying to do to you. Just off the charts. ... He's obviously extremely talented. But he is every bit as smart about the game as he is talented."

Ramirez has 51 RBIs through the team's first 45 games, which puts him on pace for 183 RBIs. That'd easily break the franchise record held by Manny Ramirez (165) and it would threaten the all-time single-season RBIs record, held by Hack Wilson, who drove in 191 in 1930. On Monday, Ramirez became the first player in the majors to reach 50 RBIs this season.

Manny Ramirez's franchise record hasn't really been challenged since he set the mark in 1999. Francona, having managed Manny Ramirez in Boston, has perhaps the best perceptive on both players.

"They're so different, because Manny, I thought in the batter's box, 'Boy, look out.' But when he left the batter's box, look out!" Francona said with a laugh, referencing the "Manny being Manny" antics of his playing days that made him a fan favorite. "Josey is a premier player everywhere on the field. He impacts the game everywhere."

Jose Ramirez, as long as he keeps on this pace, will be mentioned alongside Manny Ramirez all season.

"When you're talking about Josey in those comparisons, that's a pretty big compliment, probably to both guys," Francona said.

The RBI statistic has perhaps seen a change in perception over the last several years, at least when trying to compare two current players. For example, if Player A drives in 100 runs in 100 opportunities with runners in scoring position, and Player B drives in 99 runs but in only 80 opportunities with runners in scoring position, Player A isn't necessarily better than Player B just because he has more RBIs. But from a sheer counting perspective, of course, the RBI has its traditional place in the game.

With runners in scoring position this season, Ramirez has hit .400 with a .510 on-base percentage, five home runs, three doubles, three triples, 37 RBIs and nine walks in 51 plate appearances. The Guardians offense has gone through some ups and downs already this season, but Ramirez has delivered time and time again.

"In today's game there's an argument ... you hear Billy Beane say it's luck. I don't agree with that," Francona said. "I think some guys know how to drive in runs. Josey has certainly grown into that. I was saying last night, he's so smart. Especially, you know, we're not ... our lineup, we're young. So, he gets pitched to like nobody's business. But he's so smart that he still finds a way to be that productive."

Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Terry Francona points to Jose Ramirez's baseball IQ as much as talent