Cleveland Guardians

Cleveland reportedly picked up the $12 million club option in the contract of third baseman Jose Ramirez for the 2022 MLB season.

Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reported the news Thursday.

Ramirez entered the 2021 season as one of the league's best players over the past five years. His 26.2 WAR from 2016 through 2020 ranked tied for fourth among all hitters, per FanGraphs.

He posted an .893 OPS with 36 home runs and 27 stolen bases in 152 games during the 2021 campaign.

The 29-year-old Dominican Republic native played the final guaranteed season of his four-year, $26 million contract, but it featured club options for 2022 and 2023. In turn, ESPN's Jeff Passan reported in March that Cleveland's front office wasn't "losing sleep" over the fact that he had declined initial extension offers.

Along with his importance to the club's offense, Ramirez also started to take on more of a leadership role throughout the year starting in spring training, which is something he said "grows naturally."

"That's the way I handle my business: play hard, train hard," the three-time All-Star told reporters. "There's nothing different. If they ask me questions, I'm happy to help them try to play the game hard."

Ramirez, who also counts three Silver Slugger Awards among his career accolades, will remain a fixture near the top of Cleveland's lineup at least one more year, and probably two, after the first club option was exercised. The second option for 2023 is worth $14 million.

The team's front office must now work to upgrade other areas of the roster after missing the playoffs in 2021. It's an effort that should focus heavily on improving the offensive depth.

Cleveland's Major League Baseball team has hit a speed bump as it prepares to rebrand with a new nickname. 

Per TMZ Sports, the Cleveland Guardians roller derby team has filed a lawsuit this week against the MLB club to block it from using the nickname. 

The lawsuit alleges the MLB team "surreptitiously" filed for the Guardians trademark "in the small, East African island nation of Mauritius, effectively hiding the application unless one knew where to look."

TMZ noted that Guardians derby team owner Gary Sweatt said at one point the MLB team did reach out to make a deal about the name, but the offer was "a nominal amount, likely no more than fifteen minutes of annual team revenue."

The Guardians also said in the suit that the MLB team's logo looks "remarkably" similar to theirs and that they "cannot fulfill merchandise orders due to suppliers believing the baseball team has the rights to the name," per TMZ.

Cleveland announced in July that it was changing its nickname to Guardians: 

The change is expected to take effect at the end of the 2021 MLB season. It's unclear if the lawsuit might delay the change.  

The Guardians roller derby team was established in 2013. They haven't had a season since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but are planning to return next year. 

Terry Francona, who missed large parts of the past two seasons for medical reasons, told reporters on Wednesday he's hoping to return as manager next year and a medical appointment next week could be the determining factor. 

"That's a big appointment by the doctor's admission," he said. "We get through that day and things should be OK.

"Barring anything unforeseen, I'd really like to come back and be healthy enough to embrace what the job entails and go through it with people that I enjoy and respect."

Francona, 62, stepped away from the team this season in July to undergo hip replacement surgery. He also had a procedure for a partially removed big toe that had become infected last winter. 

Cleveland went 30-33 with DeMarlo Hale, Francona's bench coach, serving as manager.

"This year was hard," Francona told reporters. “Everything was hard. Whether it was getting to the dugout, or taking a pitcher out. It kind of wore me down. I felt like I wasn’t able to do my job appropriately.”

Under Francona Cleveland has gone 753-601 since he took over in 2013, with five postseason berths and a trip to the World Series. He's 1782-1516 in a managerial career that has also included stops with the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox, the latter where he won two World Series titles. 

But his recent years in Cleveland have unfortunately been marked by health concerns, and Francona is hoping a doctor's blessing and some time off this winter will help get him ready for the 2022 season.

"I think I have time to, and I need the time, to gain some strength and get healthy and be able to enjoy or embrace what it takes to be a manager and doing the things on the field and not feel like I'm shorting the organization," he said.

Cleveland pitcher Nick Wittgren and his wife received death threats after the reliever gave up five runs in an appearance Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Wittgren sent out screenshots of the threatening messages (NSFW warning) he received on Instagram.

"Y’all I get it, my husband had a bad day at work. But sending both of us very explicit death threats aimed at him, me, and our children is absolutely inexcusable," Ashley Wittgren tweeted. "I don’t know what the worst part about it is—that this isn’t the first time, that this won’t be the last time, or that other families in sports ALSO receive these regularly."

Nick Wittgren gave up five runs in 0.1 innings during Friday's 10-5 loss to the Rays. The game was tied when Wittgren entered, and the loss dropped Cleveland to 48-47 on the season.

Wittgren released another statement Monday on Twitter, thanking fans for their support after he revealed the hateful messages.

It doesn't appear as if Cleveland is on the verge of moving third baseman Jose Ramirez prior to Friday's trade deadline.

According to Jon Morosi of MLB Network, teams are not holding "active talks" regarding the slugger, whose asking price is "extremely high."

One reason the price is so high is that Ramirez's contract features "affordable team options for 2022 and 2023, so the club could wait until the offseason to move him."

Spotrac notes Cleveland has a club option of $12 million in base salary for Ramirez in 2022 and $14 million in base salary in 2023.

The team is also still in the playoff race despite being nine games behind the Chicago White Sox in the American League Central. It is five games behind the Oakland Athletics in the battle for the final AL wild-card spot but would also have to overcome the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays.

There is plenty to like about Ramirez, who is a three-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger and just 28 years old with multiple seasons of team control compared to other trade options who would be pure rentals.

He is slashing .252/.342/.511 with 20 home runs and 57 RBI this season and is not far removed from when he launched 39 long balls in 2018.

Ramirez has also spent his entire major league career with Cleveland, and the team doesn't seem to be in a hurry to change that.

Ownership for Cleveland's MLB franchise has selected a new name for the franchise, according to Cleveland.com's Paul Hoynes.

However, team officials have yet to confirm when the new branding will be announced, and a source declined to specify to Hoynes whether an announcement was "imminent."

Following longstanding criticism that both its nickname and mascot were racist toward Native Americans, Cleveland announced in 2018 it was dropping "Chief Wahoo" as part of its uniform and branding.

That still didn't go far enough for those who argued the "Indians" moniker needed to go as well. The Washington Football Team had moved on from a nickname that was widely considered a derogatory term for Native Americans, so the precedent had been set.

Team president Paul Dolan confirmed last December that Cleveland would change its name but added that "Indians" would remain a part of the organization for the 2021 season. He ruled out a stopgap nickname as the Washington Football Team utilized.

Sportico's Michael McMann reported that trademark applications had already been filed by other parties for "Cleveland Baseball Team" and "Cleveland Spiders." The latter had quickly become a popular alternative for fans because it had briefly been a professional team toward the end of the 19th century.

In June, Cleveland claimed it had started with a list of 1,198 possible monikers before eventually getting down to a small group of finalists. Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan provided some additional context:

While acknowledging the 2022 season was the target to have things finalized, Dolan said in March moving the rebrand to 2023 was a possibility.

Unless Cleveland is going to really slow play this, it would appear that contingency won't be necessary.

Cleveland has parted ways with a number of key players in recent years through trades or letting their contracts expire. The franchise remains committed, however, to star third baseman Jose Ramirez.

The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported Cleveland would need to be "overwhelmed" by an offer in order to move Ramirez ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.

Rosenthal cited the Tampa Bay Rays as a team that might attempt to test Cleveland's resolve.

Finances seem to have driven many of the organization's biggest decisions of late.

Francisco Lindor was heading into the final year of his contract prior to his trade to the New York Mets. Corey Kluber was due to make $17.5 million in 2020 as he landed with the Texas Rangers. The team saved a hefty hunk of change by declining club options for Brad Hand, Carlos Santana and Domingo Santana.

Finances might similarly be a factor behind the front office's assessment of Ramirez, only this time they're working in Cleveland's favor.

The 28-year-old makes $9 million this season and has club options for $12 million in 2022 and $14 million in 2023. That's a bargain for the value he provides on the field.

Through 85 games, Ramirez is batting .257 with a .510 slugging percentage, 19 home runs and 52 RBI. He's fresh off earning the third All-Star appearance of his career, and his 2.9 WAR is tied for 12th among American League position players, per FanGraphs.

The postseason window isn't closed for Cleveland, either. The team is eight games behind the Chicago White Sox for first place in the AL Central and sits 3.5 games back from the second wild-card spot.

Cleveland's offense isn't all that good to begin with. Taking Ramirez out of the mix would make the lineup even more anemic, thus nullifying what can be a dominant rotation when everyone is healthy.

If the franchise is ready to commit fully to a rebuild, then executing this trade makes sense. For now, it doesn't appear general manager Mike Chernoff is ready to go down that road.

Reigning American League Cy Young winner Shane Bieber used Cleveland's weekend road trip against the Oakland Athletics to propose to his longtime girlfriend in San Francisco. 

Bieber and Kara Kavajecz announced their engagement in a post on her Instagram. 

"I always knew," she wrote. 

Kavajecz also captioned the picture with 7-17-21, indicating Bieber proposed on Saturday. 

"Forever my girl," Bieber wrote on his Instagram along with pictures of the proposal. 

Per Kavajecz's official clothing website, she and Bieber met in Santa Barbara, California. The two-time All-Star played baseball at UC Santa Barbara from 2014-16 before Cleveland selected him in the fourth round of the 2016 MLB draft. 

Bieber is currently on the injured list with a right shoulder strain. He had a 3.28 ERA with 130 strikeouts in 90.2 innings through 14 starts this season prior to getting injured. 

Cleveland outfielder Josh Naylor was carted off during Sunday's game against the Minnesota Twins after colliding with teammate Ernie Clement when attempting to field a fly ball.

Naylor was running full speed toward the infield while the second baseman was headed toward the outfield when they bumped into one another, sending the right fielder flying in the air in a heap of pain. He was on the field for several minutes before being taken out on a cart. 

"Naylor suffered a closed fracture and dislocation of his right ankle on Sunday, per the Indians," according to MLB.com's Mark Feinsand on Monday morning. "Naylor spent the night in a Minnesota hospital and will return to Cleveland today. He'll be evaluated later this week to determine the extent of the injury/timetable for surgery." 

Naylor is hitting .255/.304/.403 with seven home runs and 21 runs batted in this season. He's spent most of his season at right field, occasionally mixing in some work at first base.

Cleveland acquired Naylor as part of the package that sent Mike Clevinger to the San Diego Padres last season.

Bradley Zimmer replaced Naylor in the outfield. 

Cleveland's MLB team might be narrowing down its options in the search for a new nickname.

According to Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan, the team is challenging trademark applications for several nicknames: Natives, Foresters, Warriors, Guardians, Cleveland Baseball Club, Heroes and Squires. 

However, Ruiter noted that these nicknames may not even be considered. He wrote that challenging applications is "pretty standard" to prevent "independent parties" from making money on a future name change by holding the trademark in advance.

The team already owns trademarks for the names Blues, Naps and Bronchos, per Ruiter. 

The club announced in December it would change its name, following pushback from Native American groups that considered the current name racist, according to The Associated Press.

On Thursday, the team said it narrowed down a list of 1,198 names to a group of finalists, but there was no clear number as to how many names were in the final stages of being considered. The suggestions stemmed from focus groups with fans, local influencers, staff members and community leaders. 

Spiders and Blues were both former names of the club, which has roots back to 1865. They were also known as the Forest Citys. 

Of course, picking a new name is just the first step to changing the face of the franchise, which cut ties with its Chief Wahoo logo several years ago but still sells merchandise with the imagery. Next will come logos, wordmarks and more.

The target date for the name change is 2022, according to Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com.