'He never gets shaken': How Jose Ramirez's confidence -- and strut -- is fueling the Guardians' run

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  Buster OlneyOct 15, 2026, 10:00 AM ET

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  • Senior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com
  • Analyst/reporter ESPN television
  • Author of "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty"

To say that Jose Ramirez walks to home plate is an injustice, a colorless description, as so much more is deserved when conveying how the Cleveland Guardians' veteran third baseman moves.

He sways demonstratively with each short and quick step, his chin slightly elevated, like the prow of a ship.

"It's a funky walk," teammate Brayan Rocchio said. "He walks like he's The Man." Future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols added, "He knows that he's good."

"A confident strut is the way I would describe it," said Tom Hamilton, the Guardians' radio broadcaster. "He exudes confidence even when he's walking around the clubhouse, and guys feed off that. When they see him, there's a different atmosphere in that clubhouse. His confidence in himself rubs off on everybody else."

That confidence has been apparent in the Guardians' turnaround and subsequent run in these playoffs, which has also coincided with Ramirez's: He went 5-for-12 in the last three games of Cleveland's comeback in the division series against the Chicago White Sox, and in Game 1 of the AL Championship Series, he had three hits and scored two runs against the top-seeded Tampa Bay Rays.

But failure is inherent in this sport, inevitably challenging the mien of even the best -- and Ramirez was right in the middle of the pivotal play that led to the Guardians' loss in Game 2 of the ALCS.

With runners at first and third and two outs, Ben Williamson hit a two-hopper at Ramirez, and on its second hop, the ball hit the edge of the artificial surface that connects with the infield dirt and skipped lower than Ramirez expected, scooting between his legs. One run scored on that error, and one batter later, Liam Hicks parachuted a single into right-center field, driving in two more runs. Standing at third base, Ramirez bent at the waist, hands on knees, and stared at the ground in frustration. The Rays would never relinquish that lead.

Sometimes players who've made mistakes will linger in the recesses of the clubhouse before coming out to face the media; occasionally, they will slip out the back. As reporters waited to be allowed into the visiting clubhouse Tuesday night, Ramirez walked out to meet them, standing in the hallway no more than five or six minutes after the game's final pitch, and answered questions about the error through Agustin Rivero, who serves as his interpreter.

"It took a little unexpected bounce, and made it difficult for me," he said. "It's frustrating. I feel bad because I wasn't able to [make the play], and after that, the runs came down."

How is he feeling as the series shifts back to Cleveland, with the teams tied 1-all in the best-of-seven series? "Good," he said. "Excited, to be back home, and feeling ready to compete."

Then, he sauntered back into the clubhouse, with that signature confidence.

"An uber-confident strut," Guardians team president Chris Antonetti said. "The crazy part is that he's had that since he was 17 years old. First day. He's had it his whole career."

Antonetti recalled that when Ramirez made his major league debut as a pinch runner on Sept. 1, 2013, he took a massive lead -- about 30 feet off first -- and when he got back to the dugout after scoring, then-manager Terry Francona asked him, "Jose, you know you're not invisible, right?"

Ramirez possesses some other baseball superpowers, borne out by the way moves -- how he runs, how he hits for power. Ramirez finished the regular season with 297 career homers and 324 stolen bases.

And, of course, his preeminence is reflected in the way he walks. "Chest out, hands down, puffed out, kind of got a little swagger to it," center fielder Petey Halpin said. "Everyone knows Jose's walk."

"I would say it's authentic," Guardians closer Cade Smith said. "It's him -- it's the kind of confidence he displays on the field, and the way he plays and hustles is completely authentic. It's consistent with everything else he does."

Ramirez's longtime teammate Carlos Santana is said to have done perhaps the best imitation of his walk, treating it as a method actor might, filling his lower lip with dip, as Ramirez does, to the laughter of teammates.

"The best way to describe his walk is, 'I'm on my way; here I come,'" manager Stephen Vogt said. "I've seen him do it walking back from a strikeout, walking up to the plate. He doesn't change that. He never gets shaken."

Earlier this year, Francona said that Ramirez was the easiest player he's ever managed because his effort level is so consistently elite that he naturally created a standard for hustle that other players -- and with Cleveland, that has typically meant younger players -- have been forced to meet.

Rays manager Kevin Cash was a coach on Francona's staff when Ramirez reached the majors, and noted Ramirez's feel for the game, which was on display in Game 1. Ramirez was at second base, and as he told his agent Rafa Nieves afterward, he could see that Rays pitcher Kevin Kelly intended to throw a changeup to the right-handed hitter Jo Adell. So Ramirez broke for third base in a steal attempt, knowing that the Rays' Junior Caminero would cover third base and open a hole on the left side of the infield, on a pitch that Adell was more likely to pull to the left side.

When Caminero did, in fact, move toward the bag, Adell chopped a ground ball through that space where Caminero had been standing. Ramirez laughed as he rounded third and ran home.

"He's had that walk since he arrived," Cash said. "I love watching that guy play."