Indians' Ramirez becomes baseball's first 30-30 man since 2012

Jose Ramirez's growing MVP case has now reached historic territory.

The Cleveland Indians infielder swiped his 30th base of the season in the first inning of Sunday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays to record the 61st 30-homer, 30-steal season in baseball history, and the first since 2012.

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

Ramirez is the third Indians player to put up a 30-30 campaign, joining Joe Carter in 1987 and Grady Sizemore in 2008.

Thirty-thirty seasons were commonplace in MLB for many years, but the general decline of the stolen base has made it a more infrequent occurrence this decade. Prior to Ramirez, the last two players to do it were Mike Trout and Ryan Braun, who both went off for 40-30 seasons in 2012 (Trout hit 30 homers and stole 49 bags that year, while Braun had 41 home runs and 30 steals).

At 37 homers and 30 steals, Ramirez now has an excellent shot at joining the 40-30 season himself before the end of September. There's also still an outside chance that he could put up what would be only the fifth 40-40 season in history.

The 25-year-old, who finished third in AL MVP voting last season, entered play Sunday sporting a .285/.398/.579 slash line. He ranks top-five among AL hitters in virtually every important category, and is now only one steal shy of tying Kansas City's Whit Merrifield for the Junior Circuit lead.