Cleveland Indians: Jose Ramirez in the early MVP conversation

The Cleveland Indians have several stars on the roster in 2018, but one young player once again stands out among the best in the entire league.

The All-Star break is still a few weeks away but it is never to early to start talking about the MVP race.

While fans around the baseball world know all about the greatness of both Mike Trout and Mookie Betts, Cleveland Indians fans are enjoying some MVP-caliber play from Jose Ramirez.

The young third baseman is set to start in the All-Star Game and once again joins Francisco Lindor and Corey Kluber as a face of the franchise. But when it comes to the MVP race, Ramirez is the team’s only real representative.

MLB.com recently published an article showing some early MVP polling, and as expected Trout and Betts were first and second, respectively, in the voting. Ramirez came in third, while Lindor also received a few votes.

But let’s look at Ramirez. He is tied with Trout and J.D. Martinez for the league lead in home runs, with 23, and is second in WAR behind Trout. Ramirez is slashing .296/.403/.613, which is a ways behind Trout but is still an elite line. For reference, Trout is at .325/.461/.657 and has 23 home runs and 48 RBIs.

Trout is not going to slow down as the season goes on. He remains a living legend and is only getting better as time passes. So unless Ramirez goes off on some historic run, it remains Trout’s MVP award to lose.

I doubt Ramirez cares about winning any awards other than a World Series title. He seems like a guy who just loves to play baseball and is comfortable in his own abilities, which is easy when he is so good.

But even with all the Trout hype, fans around the league should get to know Ramirez’s greatness. Like Trout, he is only getting better with age and may not even be at his peak yet. The Indians have a superstar on the roster, and that is before even getting to Lindor’s greatness as well.

Next: Does a deal for Jacob deGrom make sense?

What do you think? Should Ramirez be the frontrunner for the award?