The Athletics announced this afternoon that they’ve claimed left-hander Angel Perdomo off waivers from the Angels. In a corresponding move, center fielder Esteury Ruiz was designated for assignment. The Angels separately announced that left-hander Jose Quijada as cleared waivers and been assigned outright to the minor leagues.
Perdomo, 31 in May, signed with the Blue Jays out of the Dominican Republic and made his pro debut back in 2012. He didn’t end up cracking the big leagues until the shortened 2020 season, however, at which point he was a member of the Brewers. Perdomo struggled badly across parts of two seasons in Milwaukee, with an 8.24 ERA and a 6.43 FIP in 19 2/3 innings of work across 22 appearances. While his 33.7% strikeout rate was nothing short of excellent, Perdomo was held back by a massive 23.5% walk rate.
The southpaw went on to spend the 2022 season in the Rays farm system, where he pitched quite well at the Triple-A level, before signing a minor league deal with the Pirates for the 2023 season. He pitched solid for Pittsburgh that year, with a 3.72 ERA and 3.01 FIP in 29 innings of work as he struck out a sensational 37.6% of his opponents. Unfortunately, elbow issues cut Perdomo’s season short and he ultimately required Tommy John surgery during the offseason. That led the Pirates to designate the lefty for assignment, at which point he was claimed by Atlanta and signed to a split deal for the 2024 season.
Perdomo ultimately did not pitch in 2024, however, and though he stuck with the club over the offseason he was ultimately traded to the Angels earlier this month. He was DFA’d by Anaheim prior to Opening Day, and now finds himself headed north to West Sacramento where he’ll get the opportunity to join the A’s bullpen if he can prove he’s healthy and effective. The southpaw’s Spring Training was something of a mixed bag, as he impressed with a 1.80 ERA but walked (6) nearly as many batters as he struck out (8). If he pitches as well as he did for Pittsburgh, however, Perdomo could wind up being a solid complement to Mason Miller from the left hand side in the late innings.
Making room for Perdomo on the 40-man roster is Ruiz. The center fielder is most famous for being the centerpiece of the return the Athletics received in a controversial three-team trade that sent franchise catcher Sean Murphy to Atlanta and promising young backstop William Contreras to Milwaukee. While Contreras has gone on to put himself on the shortlist for the title of best catcher in baseball with the Brewers, the return the A’s received for Murphy has largely failed to produce in the majors. That includes Ruiz, who appeared in 132 games in 2023 as the club’s regular center fielder and swiped a league-leading 67 bases in 80 attempts. Impressive as his wheels were on the basepaths, however, he was a pedestrian defender in center field and failed to hit enough to justify his everyday job, slashing just .254/.309/.345 in 497 trips to the plate.
The 2024 season saw Ruiz open the season with the club but get optioned to the minor leagues in fairly short order. Overall, he hit just .200/.270/.382 with five steals in nine attempts across 29 games with the A’s during their final season in Oakland before missing the majority of the season with a wrist sprain and ultimately undergoing knee surgery in September. Ruiz came into camp with a chance at a job with the A’s this year, but hit just .121/.171/.152 in Spring Training, leaving the club to option him to the minor leagues. Evidently, the A’s feel he no longer has much of a future with the organization following the emergence of pieces like Lawrence Butler and JJ Bleday. Going forward, they’ll have one week to work out a trade involving Ruiz or else he’ll need to be placed on waivers. Should he pass through waivers unclaimed, the club will have the opportunity to outright him to Triple-A to serve as non-roster depth going forward.
Yeah, I still have no idea what Lieppman or Forst were thinking on Ruiz.
He flashed some power with that speed coming up. But was way overmatched and could never learn the strike zone. Blistering speed, though. Legit scouts thought he’d even maybe hit for some power. But watching him in MLB…it was like you could knock the bat out of his hand when he wasn’t taking wild hacks.
They saw an ability to take over the game with his speed much like Billy Hamilton. Unfortunately, he also had the lack of ability to get on base like Billy Hamilton. Speed only works if you get on. I would thinkat the very least he has a chance to bounce around the league be a postseason pinch runner much like Terrance Gore.
Hiflew… yup. He has an extreme skill set. Just need the extra roster spot. Not everyone pans out. People need to realize that just happens. His outlier season was when the A’s had nothing to lose.
Extra roster spot? Isn’t that the 26th man?
I just mean if a team HAS a theoretical spot to waste on a guy who’s not doing anything but running. You wouldn’t probably carry that all the time. You’d have a reliever there maybe.
In the postseason there is an extra roster spot for position players because you don’t need a 5th starter. Not to mention the extra spots in September if you need a playoff push.
Yeah, for sure. He has one extreme skill. He didn’t really even show well in AAA. I’m not sure what really happened outside of just not developing. I saw him in KC. He had this big man hack with an Otis Nixon body. I’d like to hear what the A’s people actually would say about it. There might be a little Willie Mays Hayes going on. He just needed to bulk up I think too. He wasn’t even getting slap hitter accomplished. Maybe some of the defensive move from 2B TO OF effected him. He looked super tight wound when I saw him. Super uncomfortable. That’s just my perspective from a guy who did pro scouting for awhile. Just what my eyes perceived watching him in the dugout and around the field.
But he’s interesting. If I were the White Sox just go claim him and work him out. Or stash him. He just really needs to play someplace on some level.
In the minors for the Padres he looked like Alfonso Soriano.Defense was suspect though at 2nd base and centerfield.
Fred Garvin- I can see the Soriano comp in the minors. You think from description he’d be this little slap hitter. But he’s not exactly short. I wonder if the A’s just didn’t get in his head. And then he wanted to start mashing. Soriano was also a toes to cap swinger. But yeah he would put 40/40 type numbers up.
Id still like to see Ruiz get a shot someplace. There’s a few teams rhat have nothing to lose.
The big difference is that Ruiz was never that caliber of defender. If Ruiz played CF like Hamilton, the A’s would have kept him.
Billy Hamilton could pick it. The hope on Ruiz was he could steal 60 and Jack maybe 15HR. MAYBE play a passable 2B even. But you can drive a Buick through the holes in his Soriano like hacks.
Id love to see someone tun him out there. Perfect White Sock
They could have got Contreras instead of Ruiz in that 3 team deal. Yikes
Yes, but with Langeliers in their plans, they weren’t considering Contreras.
Then they should have flipped him for literally anyone. It’s impossible to justify that decision.
And yet, they still got the worst of the deal.
It was clear that the Brewers got the best of the deal at the time of the trade when they got both Contreras and Payamps for just Ruiz.
That deal was so one sided for the brewers and I don’t even know why they were included in it
They could’ve just done Murphy for Contreras
U miss the point they felt catching rich and needed an of upgrade the best they had was an uproven Rooker and a bag of magic beans to man the grass of Oakland which is massive
Does Ruiz have options or is this setting him up for his release? Asking for Detroit’s CF gig.
This guy was born to be a Tiger. He can’t hit.
Just have to pinch run him once a game and he’ll steal a base a day. But he’s Billy Hamilton at the plate
I wonder if he’d be a worse option than Kreidler?
Ruiz can hit .200… that’s far better than Kreidler’s .146 lifetime average. .213 OBP.
Ruiz has .243/ .297/ ..343 splits. 82 OPS+ Kreidler has a 17 OPS+
17!!!!
I would call it far better. But it is better.
Ruiz has had more consistent ABs. Kreidler’s calling card is his glove. He can play anywhere, and be solid defensively. Until he’s given regular ABs, his bat is a question. Kreidler appears to be getting his opportunity currently. Another week or two should provide an answer.
Ruiz has a lot of negative WAR in his career, but someone will take a chance on the cheap.
Its crazy but William Contreras was the best player in that whole trade. – Murphy has really disappointed
-1.0 WAR total for Ruiz’s career.
1.0 less WAR than me.
178 games and $1.465M more MLB salary than either of us.
80% chance he’s blown thru that money, but memories.
Not quite. Just like Harold Baines, you would be dinged by WAR for your lack of defense despite never actually being on the field to play a defensive position.
Angels need a guy who can play center.
Jesus, give Paris and Adell a shot. Its been 2 games.
Adell is well past 2 games.
I’m liking Paris.
He needs to bump Tim Anderson off the roster.
bkbk – “Jesus, give Paris and Adell a shot. Its been 2 games.”
Adell has had 4 years and 2 games. He is not an MLB player and at this point I question if he will ever be. The explanation is always to point out how athletic Adell is. Fine, he’s athletic. I just think he picked the wrong sport. Athleticism has to be paired with talent to matter.
I’d trade for Ruiz. It’s disappointing that he is unhappy in Oakland, he could have really been a good fit at the top of the A’s lineup.
The A’s bullpen currently sitting at 18.0 K/9.
I could see the A’s doing Ruiz dirty and burying him in AAA, but they should trade him for what they can get for him and let him play somewhere else because he belongs on a big league roster.
I’m curious what you see in him.
He had a good rookie season, hit .250 with 67 SB. Not outstanding with a .309 OBP and a more K’s than you’d like to see. But to me that’s a good rookie season.
Injured and disgruntled in ’24 but his minor league numbers were too good to discount. In ’22 between AA / AAA .332/.447/.526 with 85 SB. 94K/66BB tells me he has the makings of a very good hitter with exceptional speed.
Billy Hamilton had similar numbers his rookie season, the difference though is that he never showed that kind of plate discipline nor anything close to that kind of slugging. Billy Hamilton proved to be a less than average hitter. Ruiz has the tools to be a great hitter.
As far as his defense goes, I don’t know how that kind of speed doesn’t play well in the OF. I don’t know how you can say he doesnt have the makeup to be at least a league average defender in LF. He is more likely to be an elite CF.
His issues Oakland are related to some sort of disagreement with ownership, and a knee injury. But he’s only 26.
Don’t know why the A’s would keep him around if he doesn’t want to be in Oakland when they are getting close to competing. A prospect or two could land him.
Ruiz has a .304 OBP since joining the A’s. He has speed yes, but the A’s could definitley find someone better to lead off.
A’s haven’t buried him. I think you’re perhaps sticking to the old narrative after his one major stolen base season. That was flimsy as could be. I believe the weakest contact in the league and an expanding zone. And I LOVED the guy. But you can’t sit up top of any order struggling to crack a .300 obp when all you have is speed on the bases. Hard to stick on a big league roster when your skill set is pinch runner.
Volpe led off for the Yankees quite a bit in ’23 and ’24, he is still in the starting lineup with the Yankees after posting a combined .227/.288 over two seasons. He runs well, not as well as Ruiz. He isn’t Omar Vizquel. But the Yankees like him and run him out there everyday. I thought he led off opening day, Goldschmidt led off yesterday, just one example of an MLB team developing a player they believe in at the MLB level. Ruiz needs to get with a team that will give him that opportunity and he’ll show what he can do.
Yankees are using new bats shaped like bowling pins that they designed and they are hitting record HRs.
si.com/mlb/mlb-official-word-on-legality-of-yankee…
Let me be the first to welcome Ruiz to Detroit.
I would have DFA’ed Brett Harris instead
Angels will claim Ruiz and DFA Ian Anderson. Then the A’s will claim Anderson and all of the trades with the Braves will come full circle.
Who is drafting for the Braves? AA?
Or better yet, who is scouting for the Braves?
Recent Braves # 1 picks:
M. Soroka ’15, I Anderson ’16, K Wright ’17, Shumake ’19, J Shuster ’20 # 1’s all traded away in recent years. There are others!
Traded 3 #1 picks for Aaron Bummer!
I know some would say they would not have made the roster, but it still shows that somebody is doing a bad job of evaluating talent when you draft a player in the 1st round then give up on them not long after!
Yes, the Braves’ recent first round picks haven’t panned out.
But also, AA has been purposely using them as trade bait to load up his MLB roster.
While he hasn’t spent much time develop them internally, he has flipped them quickly while they still have that “former first-round pick” boost in trade talks.
Why wait to see if these picks turn into something, when you can turn them in for real MLB talent?
This move isn’t just about Ruiz—it’s about how poorly the A’s have handled talent evaluation, player development, and trade execution.
I guess you can move the team but can’t remove the Joke that is management.
Same staff found Brent Rooker. Same staff found Mason Miller at a D3 I believe. Same staff grabbed this reliever out of the rule 5 from the Royals.
Never good when you trade for a prospect like Ruiz and everyone says it was a bad trade…and then this is the route it takes
I think people need to go back and read the scouting reports on Ruiz. He had speed to burn and scouts thought he’d hit for some power.
I had a Ruiz conversation with somebody who watched him play in AAA Las Vegas, said he went to a game, and he could of been exagerating, but he said he saw Ruiz hit a ball 500 feet.
Bwmiller79- I’m sure that’s an exaggeration. I believe he only hit 3 HR total for Vegas. But that’s another launching pad as all the PCL seems to be. These games in Sacramento have been a sad joke. The entire offensive production so far is all jacks.
Funny thing is Ruiz does remind me of Ced Landrum who was a Cub back in the early 90s. Guy had no power. But I did see him go WAY deep at the old Mile High in ’91.
Ruiz still getting punished for dissenting against the org.
I bet they’d forgiven him if he was an actual major league hitter. I’m as nasty a non fan of John Fisher that can be. Bht the dude hasn’t hit or got on base and they don’t have room. Where would you like to play him?
What happened?
Metsies- He was sent down very early last year after having a solid if flimsy rookie season with all those steals. The media made it out that he questioned if it was forced by ownership because the A’s were trying to lose on purpose. It got caught up in the Oakland/Fisher mess. But he legit had holes. But when a guy leads the league in steals one season and next gets sent to AAA at the start of the season. Fair question given the ridiculous A’s ownership. Had it gone on anywhere else I’m not sure much would have been made of it. I believe Ruiz actually had the very worst batted ball speed of any MLB regular. Media played it up. I’m not sure Ruiz had much if anything at all to do with it. Oakland fans will go after Fisher about anything and pretty much rightfully so.
Some of the softest batted ball averages are from batting champions.
Which would mean little in the case of Ruiz who wasn’t placing those balls. He was getting the bat knocked out of his hands. He wasn’t Wade Boggs choked up shooting the ball over the middle infield or slapping one off the Monster. He’d take big hacks a lot. I could see what scouts saw in MAYBE some power. But like 12-15 power. He was just overmatched. You could squint and kinda see Otis Nixon. A’s don’t have a place for him.
Yeah, but all batting champs make contact at a high rate. Ruiz ranked 101/168 in contact rate among batters with at least 450 plate appearances and was only in the 47th percentile of whiff rate. And considering he doesn’t have insane exit velos like Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani to make up for the lackluster contact rates and still challenge for a title, he’ll need to improve in one area or the other.
Mlb125…backing up #’s is an absolute visual of how he handles at bats. He made much weak contact not interspersed with an obp to make up any difference. The A’s had every reason to want him in the lineup. He has game changing speed when he can get on. He’s a little like Billy Hamilton. They just don’t have a place for him at this point. Personally. I loved his style. It’s an Otis Nixon thing. But it’s a very weak out usually. Massive holes.
Ruiz was caught wearing accessories (a wristband) that supported the Oakland movement. Rooker was also doing the same thing, but A’s aren’t foolish enough to do that to their best player.
Reynaldo. As much as I loathe John Fisher….Ruiz was going down anyway. I guess they didn’t have to extend Rooker either. There’s plenty of ammo on Fisher already.
Mike Tauchmann, Austin Slater, and Michael A. Taylor are all poo. The White Sox should grab Ruiz off the scrap heap if he makes it to the waiver wire.
The A’s might be onto a smart trick: picking up injured pitchers like Perdomo on the cheap, fixing them up, and either using them or trading them for a lot more later.
After the A’s blew up their last playoff team who is the best asset they got back from Olson, Murphy, Bassit, Champman, Manaea, Luzardo, etc? Is it Langeliers? Is anyone else a major league quality player?
I just looked at every single trade they made and it’s brutal. Langeliers is easily the best player they got back and the only potential all star. Joey Estes is the 2nd best. Everyone else are straight up busts and most of them are players who currently don’t play in the majors. One of the worst prospect returns I can remember from a tear down.
Yeah that’s a LOT for Langeliers. I like him. But I wouldn’t deal all that for him for sure.
Good fit for Pirates. Can steal bases better than Bae.
Braves off to bad start. Ought to be able to send empty beer cans to A’s for their 2 best players vis a vis Olson and Murphy. See Tim Hudson trade also.
“Impressive as his wheels were on the basepaths” is NOT PROPER ENGLISH. You can’t just leave “as” out to begin the sentence. It’s not optional! Grammar is not optional when you’re being paid to write.