Dodgers Prospect Watch: Keibert Ruiz
Name: Keibert Ruiz.
Vitals: Catcher, 6' 0" 200, age 21, bats both, throws right. From Valencia, Venezuela.
Acquired: Signed as an international free agent in 2014.
Highest level of play: 2019 Oklahoma City Dodgers.
Baseball America 2020 ranking: Ranked fourth among Dodgers prospects.
Likely date for major league debut: 2020/2021.
Dodgers Spring Training stats: 0-10, with six strikeouts.
Baseball America scouting report (subscription required):
“[Ruiz] is a gifted switch-hitter with excellent timing and bat speed and loose wrists that enable him to manipulate the barrel to all parts of the zone…rarely swings and misses. Ruiz puts together good at-bats from both sides of the plate, but he has faster hand speed and more natural lift in his lefthanded swing….[defense] advanced for his age and is constantly improving...good timing blocking balls, is an above-average - if sometimes inconsistent - receiver and has developed a knack for backpicking runners.
"[S]uccess on both sides of the ball as a teenager in Double-A made him the top catching prospect in baseball for many evaluators. His potential as a switch-hitting, middle-of-the-order catcher has him positioned to be next in the long line of Dodgers great homegrown backstops.”
Comment: It's important to note that the above quoted report from Baseball America was posted between the 2018 and 2019 seasons. The prevailing wisdom today is that Ruiz took a step back last year, as reflected by BA’s ranking him 81st among the game's prospect following the 2019 campaign after ranking him at number 20 the year before.
It's important to note however that Ruiz will not reach 22 years of age until July, and he was never going to keep up the pace of his early success in the Dodgers organization. He hit .300/.450/.378 as a 15-year-old in the 2015 Dominican Summer League, following up with a .374/.412/.527 in 2016, splitting time between the rookie level Odgen Raptors and Arizona Dodgers.
Advancing quickly, Ruiz hit .316/.361/.452 with similar numbers as a 2017 Great Lake Loon and Rancho Cucamonga Quake. He then spent most of his 19-year-old 2018 season with the Tulsa Drillers, recording a .268/.328/.401 line with 12 home runs and 47 RBIs.
The combined 2019 numbers between AA-Tulsa and AAA-Oklahoma City were these: .261/.331/.347, six and 34. That's not great, and the club has reason to be disappointed. But if you take a step back to note that in being promoted mid-season every year at such a young age, it’s logical to expect some degree of regression at the higher levels.
Current Dodgers catcher, Will Smith, hit .233/.322/.455 between stops at Tulsa and OKC in 2018. As a 23-year-old. Ruiz is 21. More importantly, not everyone progresses at the same speed. A.J. Ellis, you may recall, became the club's regular backstop in 2012. At 31. Austin Barnes has looked like a major league hitter in one season out of his five, as a 27-year-old in 2017.
Ruiz has plenty of development left in him. He'll be ready when he's ready. In other words, patience Grasshopper.
And remember, glove conquers all.
Howard Cole has been writing about baseball on the internet since Y2K. Follow him on Twitter.
