On April 2, the Dodgers made a relatively unorthodox transaction, acquiring (recently DFA’d) outfielder Esteury Ruiz from the Athletics in exchange for minor league pitcher Carlos Duran. Ruiz will presumably join the Oklahoma City Dodgers shortly, and he may possess tools to make an impact on the major league club that could be maximized with some adjustments from the Dodgers’ coaching staff.
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The 26-year-old Ruiz has long been known throughout the league for his speed and even led the American League with 67 stolen bases in 2023. However, injuries limited his 2024 season to a mere 29 games. At first glance, Ruiz’s the small sample from Ruiz’s 2024 season appears to be a significant drop-off from his production in 2023, as he struggled in the field and his strikeout rate increased from 19.9% to 30.8%. However, Ruiz’s small sample of a season in 2024 also produced the same wRC+ (85, with league average being 100) as his 2023 season. His batting average dropping from .254 to .200 could potentially be a result of his lower BABIP, especially considering that Ruiz’s slugging percentage rose in 2024 (.345 to .382), as did walk rate (4% to 6.2%). Essentially, the 2024 season feels like somewhat of a wash in terms of evaluating his offensive ability. Despite the injuries, Ruiz’s sprint speed was better than 95% of other MLB players and, evidently, he maximizes his game-changing speed by mixing it with elite and efficient base-running.
While it’s clear the Dodgers like Ruiz’s speed and saw that he’s capable of impacting the game on the bases despite having a below-average bat and debatably-average defense, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts informed the media that the Dodgers’ “hitting guys felt there’s some upside potential there.” In his career, Ruiz has managed to combine his speed with an all-fields approach and a contact profile (20% K rate is better than the average of 23%), but hasn’t been able to do much damage.
What’s especially notable about Ruiz is that’s he capable of hitting the ball hard, as he has a max exit velocity of 109 to 110 in the last two years, which isn’t outstanding but does put him in the same range as guys with much better slug like J.T. Realmuto, Rhys Hoskins, and Max Muncy. It suggests raw pop might be in the bat but it hasn’t been tapped into, perhaps due to his speedy profile, and thus he has majorly lacked the game power so far to turn that into sustained MLB success. Meanwhile, the Dodgers in recent years have often been able to increase power, loft and pull, and general productivity in contact hitters with certain tools, so it seems quite plausible that if the Dodgers adjust Ruiz’s swing similarly to how they tweaked Edman’s (or others), at least in theory Ruiz could potentially hit more line drives, develop slightly more power, and turn some of those blue fly-outs into pulled home runs instead of trying to punch the ball and run.
In terms of Esteury Ruiz‘s fit on the star-studded 2025 Dodgers, for now it feels reminiscent of Terrance Gore‘s tenure in 2020: a pinch runner with elite speed. However, if Ruiz can tap into something offensively, there could very well be opportunity for him if there’s an injury with the outfield depth chart having more question marks than most, and with his speed he could at the very worst provide value by getting on base even at a sub-.300 clip. Overall, he fits a specialist role right now, but sending a legit arm in Carlos Duran the other way suggests the Dodgers are hoping that they can unlock upside in Ruiz to fit his former rising prospect status, and if they can even get a fourth outfielder out of this the Dodgers will have seemingly done well here.
