Rio Ruiz passed up his dream of playing baseball and football at USC to sign with the Astros in 2012, so it was quite a jolt to him when they traded him to the Braves in January.
But it didn’t take him long to warm to the idea, and now the third-base prospect is in Braves camp, ready to start the next chapter of his career after making big progress last season in advanced Single-A ball.
“Initially (the trade) was overwhelming,” said Ruiz, 20, part of the three-prospect package the Braves got for slugger Evan Gattis. “Then I looked at the big picture, and I was happy with it. I watched the Braves growing up, and my dad just talked about the guys that came through this system and played in the big leagues.”
Another L.A. native and former Braves third baseman of note, Terry Pendleton, likes what he’s seen from Ruiz in the first days of spring training.
“We’ve talked a little bit,” said Pendleton, former National League MVP and current Braves first-base coach. He isn’t one to lavish praise on young players before it’s earned, so it meant something when old-schooler Pendleton said this about Ruiz: “He’s a baseball player, that much I can tell you.”
Ruiz said of Pendleton, “We talked the first day when we met. He said he’s from the L.A. area, too, and he’s an SC fan. So we had that in common. Hopefully we’ll have a lot more things in common the more I get to know him. … He was an awesome third baseman. My dad told me a lot about him, so I researched him and know what he did.”
In Ruiz’s second full season, he hit .293 with a .387 OBP, 50 extra-base hits (11 home runs) and 77 RBIs in 131 games at high-A Lancaster in the California League, with 82 walks and 91 strikeouts in 602 plate appearances. He’s filled out a lot and worked to improve his strength and conditioning, reporting at 6-feet-1 and 220 pounds — some 40 pounds heavier than when he signed.
He’s expected to begin the 2015 season at Double-A Mississippi.
“I watched him play a little defense — he’s got a little work to do,” Pendleton said. “But offensively, he’s sound. Really sound offensively. Just watching him in the cage, he’s inside the ball (with his swing). He’s what you want a young kid to be coming up so all you’ve got to do is tweak here and there. That’s what he looks like anyway.”
Ruiz is one of the youngest of a load of prospects, many of them newcomers trying to plant a seed in the minds of Braves coaches and officials. None seems more eager to learn and improve than the kid whose nickname was “Big River” at Bishop Amat High School, where he was a two-sport star.
He was set to play quarterback or defensive back at USC before the Astros convinced him to go pro by giving him a $1.85 million signing bonus after selecting him in the fourth round of the 2012 draft. Baseball America ranked Ruiz as the No. 8 prospect in the Astros’ deep farm system, and he’s rated fifth in the Braves organization by ESPN.com scouting analyst Keith Law, who has him at No. 93 in baseball’s top 100 prospects.
Ruiz wants to learn all he can this spring and try to keep improving every part of his game. And he’d like to meet one other former Braves third baseman who was a league MVP.
“Chipper Jones and Michael Young were the guys I looked up to as a third baseman,” Ruiz said. “Coincidentally I’m here now. I’m hoping I get a chance to meet Chipper Jones.”
