A’s speedster Esteury Ruiz underwent arthroscopic surgery to fix the patellar tendon in his right knee this afternoon. The team announced that Ruiz “will complete post-surgical rehabilitation in the offseason to prepare for 2025 Spring Training,” suggesting this shouldn’t impact his availability next season.
This was essentially a lost season for the 25-year-old outfielder. The A’s demoted Ruiz to Triple-A a few days into the season. While they recalled him a couple weeks later, he worked mostly in a bench role before suffering a left wrist injury that sent him to the injured list. Ruiz never made it back, as he battled renewed soreness in the wrist when he tried to ramp up on a rehab stint. The timing of the knee injury is unclear.
Ruiz was limited to 29 MLB contests — all of which came before the end of May. He hit .200 with 20 strikeouts in 65 plate appearances. It certainly wasn’t the step forward which the A’s had envisioned after Ruiz paced the American League with 67 stolen bases in 2023. That came with a middling .254/.309/.345 batting line and poor defensive grades in center field. Ruiz has yet to demonstrate he’s an especially effective all-around player, even if his speed makes him an elite baserunner.
The A’s built their return in the three-team Sean Murphy trade around Ruiz. Oakland looped in the Brewers as part of the deal, indicating they valued Ruiz more highly at the time than they did catcher William Contreras (who went from Atlanta to Milwaukee). Even with Shea Langeliers in the fold, that was an odd decision, since the A’s could have flipped Contreras elsewhere. It looks even worse in hindsight, as Contreras has developed into one of the game’s top catchers.
JJ Bleday has stepped up as the A’s primary center fielder. There should still be time for Ruiz to play his way back into center field work while pushing Bleday into a corner opposite Lawrence Butler. He’ll need to take steps forward on both sides of the ball to avoid falling into fourth or fifth outfielder territory.
As a guy with bad catcher’s knees, I say good luck with the rehab, young man.
At least you acknowledge you were a bad catcher. Probably saved you a lot of wasted effort.
I was a good catcher actually, just had bad knees and couldn’t hit the slider away when I got higher up the ladder. But I got a great job with my last team, married a local girl, and spent a lot of years in the game in other ways, so it all worked out.
It was just a corny joke. Congrats Ham Porter on finding your Wendy Peffercorn.
Contreras was hitting arbitration and the ownership is legendarily cheap. It’s likely the GM was instructed not to take on the contract, regardless of the return or his obvious talent.
Contreras came from the Braves and he doesn’t hit arb until next year. If Ruiz played this year he would have been on a arb path maybe a year behind. As just took quantity, like always.
“A’s just took quantity”..You’re refuting conspiracy theories with facts; I was waiting for him to get to the part about exactly who kidnapped the Lindberg baby or at least find out who shot J.R
The A’s kidnapped the Lindberg baby. A lot of people think JFK shot himself because sitting in Dallas traffic in the heat is worse than death, but they’d be wrong. Yup, Oakland A’s again.
The Lindberg baby actually survived, is the secret owner of the A’s, and is looking to expand payroll for their stint in Sacramento, where the alignment of the planets combined with the success of the franchise will finally reveal the true location of the one ring.
I wish. Al Davis ate the Lindberg baby shortly after the As kidnapped it. Upon hearing of the infanticide local wizards cursed the Davis family to several centuries of Amish haircuts.
I read it in the grocery checkout line.
MIL developed Contreras into a C. He wouldn’t have done that in Oakland though his bat is more valuable than Ruiz.
They all came from the Braves and the author of the article indicates that they looped in the Brewers because they wanted to flip Contreras for Ruiz, a player with virtually no AB’s or major league success at the time, making it easier to manipulate his service time. Trying to stash Contreras in AAA would have been solid grounds for a grievance.
What? Interesting you completely disregard the fact you were 100% wrong about the Contreras arb argument which was your only argument before.
True, Contreras was on pace to earn more but they would have been on the same track if the A’s hadn’t started sending Ruiz down.
Though sending 3 players over to the Brewers in exchange for one top prospect isn’t really an example of the A’s quantity over quality approach.
A’s sent payamps (non prospect journeyman at that point) to the brewers and Murphy to the Braves. You are still confused.
The Braves gifted Contreras and another guy to the Brewers out of the kindness of their hearts?
Are you okay?? You can click on the player, it takes you to the bbref page for that player, scroll down to transactions, click that and you can see which players changed orgs. You are making up what happened in this trade. Braves paid quantity with pitchers to the As.
Braves sent Yeager and Contreras to the brewers. Yeager a 33rd round pick.
No worries, just clarifying that’s what happened. Cheers :)(:
Is this how a gish gallop works within a comment section?
Sadly Ruiz will probably lose that speed just like RG3 in the NFL, injuries like that impact speed
I hope Ronald acuna will still have his speed since he was fine after his first injury
It’s like a season-long trend for these young players. Can’t even stay healthy for a full season after leading the league in stolen bases last year.