Can Darin Ruf's return to the SF Giants rejuvenate the veteran slugger?

"Let's get this done."

Those were SF Giants slugger Darin Ruf's words after he, suddenly an itinerant cast-off, learned that the Giants were interested in bringing him back for 2023, according to a recent article by Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. After a tumultuous season in which he went from role-playing hero to New York zero, Ruf is ready to begin his climb back to being a major league weapon. And it represents the ultimate value for San Francisco.

Let's start with the trade. With a maddeningly inconsistent team that floundered in the early parts of the year, the Giants did something they've done about as often as Sergio Romo hurled fastballs - they traded at the deadline. The Giants found a partner in the Mets, who were looking to load up for a postseason run. New York coveted Ruf's dominance against left-handed pitchers; his OPS against left-handers was a sparkling 1.007 in 2021 and a still-compelling .887 before that fated trade. In return, the Giants received a bonafide starter in J.D. Davis, as well as three prospects now working their way up the Giants' system: pitching prospects Carson Seymour (Giants #13 prospect), Thomas Szapucki (Giants #14 prospect), and Nick Zwack (Giants #30 prospect). It was about as win-win as a trade could get.

Except for Ruf, it was the beginning of a major collapse. He hit .162 during the home stretch, and became a constant recipient of criticism. He didn't record a hit during a short postseason sweep by the Padres. His play had deteriorated. His family was reeling after they had to uproot themselves once again. He was still reeling after the sudden death of his father earlier in the year. And that fearsome New York media had certainly let him hear it.

Now that Ruf is out of the Mets' orbit, though, he's heading back to a city he's made his own, circumventing Triple-A entirely and joining the Giants big-league roster on Wednesday. If he can prove that his recent slumps have been the product of circumstance and environment rather than a fateful late-career nosedive, he could soon be planting the roots of his family right where they were so unexpectedly torn out last year. In his first game of the season, he finished 2-for-4 with a double. That's a heckuva good start.

In doing so, he'll return tremendous humanity to the Bay Area. During his tenure in San Francisco, Ruf and his family came face-to-face with the endemic problem of homelessness, as many of us do in our lives. Darin and his wife Libby, seeking the best way to guide their son Henry into channeling his compassion, realized that the bare minimum wasn't enough. So, they set out on a project to deliver lunches packed with food and love to the streets of San Francisco, per Baggarly. For a family that's roved from the East Coast to Korea and back again, the time and devotion that Ruf and his family have spent tackling such seemingly insurmountable issues speaks volumes to their character.

"Watching his at-bats in Arizona, they were really quality plate appearances," Giants manager Gabe Kapler said during his pregame media availability on Wednesday. "On time, bat speed looks good. As we all know plate appearances in extended spring training is not the same as facing Clayton Kershaw in a major-league game so where he is mentally I think is more important than whether or not he gets hits immediately."

And ideally, it's not just Darin Ruf's exemplary character that precipitated a reunion with the Giants. The Giants have every reason to believe that bringing him back to the Bay will also return his lefty-mashing prowess. They desperately need it. As noted earlier this week, the Giants have been the worst team in baseball at hitting left-handed pitching. Since then, they've made a gargantuan leap from 30th in baseball to... 29th. The more hitters like Ruf the Giants can get, the better.

If Ruf does fulfill the offensive potential he's shown over the past two years in San Francisco, then it will bring the path of last year's trade to a close. A full circle, in fact - the shape of the Venn Diagram of the trade's winners, with San Francisco in full bold over the top. It won't bring in Carlos Correa, and it won't ensure that Shohei Ohtani lands in the Bay Area at the trade deadline or in the offseason. But it will give the Giants a fighting shot to break through the mold of stacked NL West rivals and compete for a shot to recapture that 2021 magic.

With Ruf as part of the fold once again, and moving past the painful upheavals of yesteryear, that chance might not be as small as it seems. Sometimes, it takes a little bit of distance to know what you truly had.

“Everyone had such an awesome experience in San Francisco with the staff and the families there that it was a shock to go somewhere different,” Ruf told Baggarly. “It’s not just the players and coaching staff. It’s the travel staff, equipment staff, training staff. They are fantastic at what they do. We had it really, really good and we got kind of thrown into figuring things out for ourselves and that was really tough to do.”

Now, though, Ruf hopes he can hit well enough to finish his career with the SF Giants, perhaps even helping them return to the postseason.