A disappointing sophomore season for the speedster
Tons of players make their major league debuts every single season. For a lot of those rookies, it’s their sophomore campaign that comes with the biggest challenge. Your fellow big leaguers now have a sense of who you are as a player, both on the base paths and in the batters box. The league will always adjust to you, but how well can you adjust to the adjustment? For outfielder Esteury Ruiz, that change went a lot harder than anticipated, and injuries never help. We’re about to take a look back on the young speedy outfielder’s second season with the A’s.
How was he acquired?
The A’s acquired Ruiz as part of the return package for All-Star catcher Sean Murphy. That trade, which happened back in December of 2022, also brought back 2023 Opening Day starter Kyle Muller, Freddy Tarnok, and Royber Salinas. Of all those players that the trade brought back, Ruiz is the only one remaining in the organization exactly two years later. Hindsight is 20/20 but not the best trade general manager David Forst could have made, not by a long shot. At least we still have Ruiz!
What were the expectations?
Entering the season Ruiz had raised expectations compared to his rookie season. His first year as an everyday player saw him set the American League rookie stolen base record with 67 swipes, quickly demonstrating the havoc he can cause on the base paths. While speed is the name of his game he also slashed a decent .254/.309/.345 with five home runs. Not bad out of a rookie center fielder, though for as fast as he is Ruiz had some adventures in center field due to bad routes, in addition to the expected noodle arm.
Entering the 2024 season Ruiz seemed like a sure bet for everyday at-bats as the club continued its rebuild. Ruiz was a young and speedy outfielder who showed promise as a rookie. The club would have loved for him to add some power to his game but if he just got on base more the club would have been happy with that improvement for his second year. On base more means more stolen bases.
2024 Results
Things went just about as bad as they could for Ruiz this past season. Ruiz was not in the Opening Day lineup against a right-handed ace and he would be optioned to the minor leagues just three games into the season. It was fairly obvious at the time that he was being punished for wearing a Last Dive Bar wristband trying to show solidarity with the fans of the Oakland Athletics. Not exactly fair for Ruiz but what can you expect from an owner like the Athletics have?
He soon returned to the club after a couple weeks in Triple-A and came back in a big way, hitting a home run in his first game back. That was a nice moment and he kept it up for a few more games but Ruiz was ultimately relegated to the short side of the platoon for the early portion of the season. Ruiz wasn’t hitting as well as he had in his rookie season and his threat on the basepaths diminished. Ruiz wasn’t even in center field, instead yielding it to JJ Bleday. The speedster who was expected to cover the vast Oakland Coliseum center field instead spent 94 2⁄3 innings in left field compared to just 46 1⁄3 frames in center.
Things were not looking good for Ruiz nearing the end of May. He had become essentially the fourth outfielder on the roster, getting a start here and there but mainly used for pinch-running and late-game defensive purposes. Things went even more downhill for him from there though. On May 22nd Ruiz sprained his wrist in a game against the Colorado Rockies. That shut him down but at the time the thought was this could be a relatively short IL stint. Just a couple weeks later he began his rehab assignment but was shut down soon after with continued discomfort. The wrist sprain suffered in late May would end up wiping out the rest of his season as he just couldn’t get back to full health. Ruiz finished the year playing just 29 games with the A’s with a disappointing line of .200/.270/.382 with two home runs and just five stolen bases (but also four caught stealing attempts).
2025 Outlook
For Ruiz, time is quickly running out if it hasn’t already. The speedster also underwent a knee procedure soon after the end of the year and it’s unknown if he’ll be at full strength when camp opens. That is especially concerning for a player who relies so heavily on his legs. Ruiz will enter camp as an option to win a job in left field as JJ Bleday and Lawrence Butler have center and left locked up, respectively. Ruiz could be looking at another platoon with Seth Brown in left for the early portion of the year but the club would surely hope the younger Ruiz, who again is the last remnant of the Sean Murphy trade, could finally unlock his potential and take an everyday spot in his third year. Will he be able to do that, or is Ruiz the new Cristian Pache? We should have our answer fairly soon into the season.
