Former big league first baseman/outfielder Darin Ruf has joined the University of Nebraska Omaha baseball program as an assistant coach, the school announced Wednesday. There’s been no formal announcement of retirement for the 38-year-old Ruf, but this certainly seems to indicate he’s turning the page on his playing days and moving onto the next phase of his baseball journey.
“We are thrilled to have Darin join our baseball family,” Mavericks head coach Evan Porter said in a statement within today’s announcement. “Darin’s incredible track record speaks for itself, but his character and work ethic are perhaps more impressive. I’ve been fortunate to know Darin for the past 20 years, his respect for the game and for the people around him is admirable. I couldn’t be more excited to work with Darin, he is a tremendous addition to our program.”
A 20th-round pick out of Omaha’s Creighton University back in 2009, Ruf reached the majors with the Phillies in 2012 and went on to enjoy a nine-year career in the major leagues in addition to an excellent three-year run with the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization (2017-19).
Ruf’s debut campaign with the Phils was brief but showed clear potential for a meaningful big league career. He appeared in 12 games as a September call-up and popped three homers while batting .333/.351/.727 in 37 trips to the plate. The following season saw Ruf tally 293 plate appearances while hitting .247/.348/.458 with 14 round-trippers. He’d ultimately spend parts of five seasons with the Phillies, from 2012-16, batting a combined .240/.314/.433 while serving as a part-time first baseman and corner outfielder who could provide some right-handed thump off the bench.
From there, Ruf’s next stop was overseas. He not only found success with the KBO’s Lions — he took the entire league by storm. Ruf smacked 38 homers in his first Korean season and wound up posting a massive .313/.404/.564 batting line in 1756 plate appearances as a Lion. He belted 86 homers, 105 doubles and six triples during his run in the KBO, with overall offense about 45% better than league-average, by measure of wRC+.
Ruf returned stateside for the 2020 season, taking a minor league deal with the Giants that proved to be an outstanding deal for San Francisco. He cracked the Giants’ opening day roster in the shortened 2020 campaign, his age-33 season, and in 100 plate appearances turned in a .276/.370./517 slash that made him an easy call to keep for the Giants to tender him a contract in arbitration in the 2020-21 offseason. Ruf’s 2021 output was even better than that small-sample 2020 showing; in 312 plate appearances he hit .271/.385/.519 with 16 homers.
That sudden resurgence in the majors prompted the Giants to ink Ruf to a two-year, $6.25MM contract. His bat took a step back in the first season of the deal, but Ruf was still hitting at a slightly better-than-average level when the Mets acquired him at that summer’s trade deadline. His bat cratered following the move to Queens, however, and New York designated Ruf for assignment just before Opening Day 2023. He was released in early April, signed a minor league deal to return to the Giants, and split the 2023 season between San Francisco and Milwaukee, seeing brief playing time at both stops.
It now seems likely that’ll be the final stage of Ruf’s playing career. If he’s indeed shifting his focus to a coaching track, he’ll conclude his time in the majors with a career .239/.329/.427 batting line, 351 hits, 67 homers, 69 doubles, three triples, six steals, 198 runs scored and 205 runs driven in. Between MLB and the KBO, he cracked more than 150 homers and piled up more than 800 hits — all while earning more than $9MM in the majors and more than $4MM in South Korea.
The Omaha native will now help mold a younger generation of players while returning to his hometown. Ruf expressed excitement and gratitude in a statement of his own within today’s announcement:
“I am thrilled to be joining Evan’s staff in Omaha. I have been blessed with amazing coaches throughout my career and I am honored Evan has given me the opportunity to give back and work with these student athletes. I look forward to working with them on the field to become the best ball players they can be and off the field as they continue to develop into great people for the community of Omaha.”
Since he hasn’t retired he could play MLB and coach Nebraska.
Sucks if he only gets 9 years one year away from a MLB pension.
He’s still getting 67.5% of the full pension amount based on his service time. Darin will be fine
I am not 100% sure of this, but I think major league coaching counts towards the 10 years. So if he coaches in college for a while, maybe he can land a position on a major league coaching staff for a year.
We loved us some ‘Babe’ Ruf while he was playing for the Phillies.
Did we? He’s a symbol of those awful mid-2010s Phillies teams that were barely watchable.
@kabby,
Cheer up, sport! No sense in looking back, and feeling sad.
Could have stolen 80 bases a year if he got on base enough and was given enough opportunities.
Very true. One year he had 5 steals as a minor leaguer in one season.. Would have been 9 if he hadn’t been picked off four times.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda, didn’t.
He had a Ruf finish to his big league career.
Fun pun, but it is really true. He sliced his knee open on the tarp chasing down a foul ball and had to hold the tendons and ligaments in there as he walked off the field. It was gruesome.
Exactly
He’s got 9 million in the bag, so he can retire and have made a nice amount of money to transition to his new coaching job.
@Warden: Actually he’s earned better than $9M. $13M plus—– “more than $9M in the majors and more than $4M in South Korea.”
Very nice did not know thank you for the updated total!
@Warden: Don’t give me too much credit, lol. That quote was from the article.
Dang, my reading comprehension is terrible today lol
NashvilleJeff: Closer to $9M after taxes.
Blue Baron: Just a quote from the article above. Do you quibble w/every dollar figure quoted on a player’s earnings by including the tax liability?
NashvilleJeff: Do you take exception every time someone disagrees with a dollar figure you quote in a comment?
I “quibble” about as often as you take exception.
Why would you “disagree” with the “dollar figure” stated by the author of the Ruf article? Guess you just want to “quibble”—-as usual.
If I had a nickel for every former MLB player named Darin that coaches baseball at a public college in Nebraska, I’d have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice
“Ruf is on the move!’ Best of luck to a great Giant.
Ha ha. That was a very cool moment. Thanks for reminding me !
It was a knee injury that ended his season with the Brewers last year
If you are in the University of Nebraska Omaha baseball program….
It’s gonna get
RUF……………………………….
Hoskins and Ruf were ridiculous for Reading— personally hit 38 Hr and 3 more in Philly.
Very happy for Darin!! The