I haven’t seen any mocks sending Ruiz to the Phillies or any rumors reported on interest from the Phillies, but it’s hard to miss the similarities to picks during the Barber/Mattingly/Dombrowski regime. Ruiz is old for the class (turned 19 in March), is an up the middle defender, has a contact over power approach, but with the swing speed to suggest he could get to some power, and from an area that’s decidedly not a baseball hot bed. That’s basically the exact description of Dante Nori and not far
from descriptions of Justin Crawford and Aiden Miller (in Miller’s case his lack of power in High School was injury related). As I’ve said in other previews this year, when picking so low in the First Round (Comp round even, at this point) you have to pick your poison of what flaws you want to gamble on: perceived injury risk (Wood), age relative to peers (Nori, Miller), lack of power (Miller, Crawford, Nori), cold climate (Nori), etc. I’m banking this preview on them looking at Ruiz similarly to their view of Nori.
Ruiz’s overall profile is a 5’10”, 165 lbs, natural Shortstop with smooth actions and plenty of arm, switch hitting bat and line drive gap power from The Stony Brook School in New York. He’s a Vanderbilt commit, so there is some risk he decides not to sign and goes to College where he’d be a draft eligible Sophomore. His profile is actually very reminiscent of Bryan Rincon, who’s having a bit of a breakout season this year. Ruiz was projected pre-season to be closer to a possible top 10 pick, but hasn’t shown any real improvement to in-game power (he shows it in BP, but prospect history is littered with guys who had plenty of BP power and nothing in-game), while other players have. His carrying tool is going to be his glove, which is best in class. He makes all the routine plays and stays under control, but also make acrobatic, highlight-reel quality plays that have earned him plenty of raves. Thanks to his glove he’ll stand a very good chance of at least getting to the MLB level as a glove first bench player. He’s an average runner, who will get some stolen bases, but not really be a weapon in that part of his game. And his arm is a plus weapon allowing him to play multiple positions, if needed down the line.
Switch hitters are double the fun from a draft profile perspective, as you get 2 different swings to analyze, but we’ll start with the basics that apply to both swings. Both swings are mostly line drive oriented and Ruiz rarely swings and misses from either side of the plate. Now for the individual swings his left handed swing shows more pop and better bat speed (that’s good, he’ll use that one more). One notable point is how similar his right and left swings are. For both he sets up with VERY high hands, almost over his head, with some lateral bat wiggle, a small leg kick and short, well-timed stride into his contact zone. I’d love to see if he can bring the hands down some and drop the bat less to shorten his path. That’s a minor quibble and his swing overall looks very smooth and you don’t need tons of power out of him with that glove and plus contact ability. Video below shows a bit of everything in non-game settings.
This video is a very similar vein of workout/showcase video. with a little view from behind the plate in addition.
This pick would feel a lot like the Nori pick as a high floor-lower ceiling gamble. We’re basically a round 2 pick and this is pretty consistent with the profile of the guys you’d be excited about in round 2.
