The Athletics announced on Friday that they’ve signed international free agent Norge Ruiz to a minor league contract. MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports (on Twitter) that Ruiz will receive a $2MM signing bonus. The 22-year-old Cuban right-hander has long been considered one of the more appealing arms in Cuba. Ruiz is subject to international spending limitations due to his age, so he’ll count against Oakland’s bonus pool.
Ruiz’s numbers in three professional seasons in the Cuban National Series are impressive, as he worked to a collective 2.55 ERA in 374 1/3 innings. He averaged just six strikeouts against 3.1 walks per nine innings pitched in that time, though scouting reports on Ruiz indicate that he has the potential to make a significant impact on Oakland’s farm system.
Sanchez ranks Ruiz as the No. 3 prospect on this winter’s international market, and while he didn’t make Baseball America’s list of top international prospects this summer, that was due to the fact that he’d yet to technically be cleared as a free agent. (Ruiz was declared a free agent by MLB back in early September.) Per Sanchez’s above-linked report, Ruiz has a fastball that reaches 94 mph and has plenty of movement on it, and he’s also worked with a slider, changeup, cutter and splitter that are deployed from various arm angles.
BA’s Ben Badler writes today that Ruiz’s changeup a plus pitch and also writes that his slider can flash above-average at times as well. He generates plenty of ground-balls, though there’s some belief that his size could lead to durability issues. Ruiz is listed at 6’0″ and 185 pounds, and that slight frame has led to some skepticism from scouts, though it seems likely that he’ll be given every opportunity to develop as a starting pitcher in the Athletics organization. Ruiz will add an intriguing arm to the upper levels of the Athletics’ system and could conceivably be an option in 2018, if not 2017, depending on how quickly he shakes off the rust as he settles back into game settings and on how quickly he adjusts to facing more advanced competition.
Nice, it turns out Billy Beane is alive after all.
All seriousness, could be a nice under the radar signing.
David Forst is their GM
Yeah but we all know who pulls the strings. It’s like saying Theo Epstein isn’t the GM of the Cubs, but his mark is all over the team
This thinking, though common completely dismisses the contributions of Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod.
But Billy runs the show!
Cespedes type offer to Encarnacion sound like he’s alive to me. Just sayin
Outside of signing Matt Joyce, EE’s been the only person we’ve had rumored interest in, despite MLB pressuring our group to spend more. Huge hole in CF that remains unaddressed, most of our rotation has a ton of questions, and even our bullpen looks underwhelming. Beane (or Forst, whoever) needs to do some work here. We dont have the high level minor league talent to do nothing, yet that’s basically what we’ve done
Billy is definitely in charge in Oakland
94mph fast ball…gets grounders and only has a 6/9 k rate? Whats wrong with this picture? Sounds like a middle reliever to me. Cant k the free swinging Cuban league…gonna be tough in the majors.
Im waiting for next year when the Japanese post the guy who jacked 22hr and also had the 10/9 k rate in about 180 innings….possibly our first two way star in baseball in a long long time. Ankiel didnt do both at the same time…Kieshnick.
Cuban hitters actually don’t strike out at nearly as high a rate as hitters in MLB do.
Coaching of pitching seems to be severely behind coaching of hitting in Cuba Raisel Iglesias only had a career 6.9 K/9 in Cuba (close to 10 k/9 in MLB), he is young and has no where near the type of information that will be available to him in the majors.
All true. Good to know.
Last ball player left in Cuba turn off the lights on your way out of town….
Seems like teams are signing Cuban players on a twice a week basis anymore. Any major league talent left on the island?
Jose Fernandez the 2nd Baseman. I don’t understand why no one has signed him? he has been eligible since last June and one of the best in Cuba for years.
The guy is from my province in Cuba, Camaguey I saw him pitch in the caribbean series and trust me the guy is a workhorse and very very active on the mound he’s really fun to watch, he reminds me of Fernandez they play with the same flare, coaches used to scold him in Camaguey because he celebrated too much when he K someone. I wanted the Marlins to sign him but our owner doesn’t care about the fans or the franchise. U got a good one in Oakland guys.
What is up with Jose Fernandez the 2B? He is the best player not signed out of Cuba. Is it because of the Human Traffiking?