Esteury Ruiz’s speed ‘can impact the game.’ The Marlins are seeing that
To catch a glimpse at how Esteury Ruiz can impact a game, look no further than his performance in the Miami Marlins’ 2-1 win over the New York Mets on Friday. The outfielder used his blazing speed and smart baserunning to his advantage to manufacture both of Miami’s runs in its series opener against the Mets.
First, he hit a double into the gap in right-center field in the second inning, stole third and scored with ease on a ground ball to Mets first baseman Mark Vientos.
Then, in the fourth inning, he sped to third base on a fly ball to right field that was misplayed by the Mets’ Carson Benge and scored on an Owen Caissie single up the middle.
Those two moments exemplify exactly why the Marlins have Ruiz on their roster. He’s not an everyday player.
But his ability to wreak havoc on the basepaths has the ability to be a gamechanger.
“He certainly can impact the game and change it when he’s on the bases,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “The opponent knows it. ... If it anyway alters their cadence or [if] their attention is more on him than the hitter, that’s advantageous as well. There’s a lot of open opportunities for him to run with just how fast he is, and you know he’s got a lot of courage out there, too.”
Through play on Friday, Ruiz is a perfect 8 for 8 on stolen base attempts this season and has 85 total stolen bases in 104 attempts across his MLB career. His eight steals this year are tied with the Chicago White Sox’s Miguel Vargas for the fourth-most of any player in MLB this season without being caught stealing, behind only the Boston Red Sox’s Jarren Duran (10 for 10), the Philadelphia Phillies Bryson Stott (10 for 10) and the San Diego Padres’ Jackson Merrill (9 for 9).
And this success has come despite Ruiz missing the first month of the season while sideliend with a left oblique strain sustained at the end of spring training.
Ruiz ranks tied for 14th across all MLB in FanGraph’s base running metric, which “turns stolen bases, caught stealings, and other base running plays (taking extra bases, being thrown out on the bases, etc) into runs above and below average.” He has 1.7 runs above average in that category despite having just 39 total plate appearances this season.
Speed plays a key factor in that — Ruiz has an average sprint speed of 29.9 feet per second according to Statcast (30 feet per second is considered elite) — but instincts are perhaps even more important that simply being fast.
The main thing for him, which has been the case his whole career, is getting on base. Ruiz is a career .240 hitter. He’s hitting just .216 this season so far with the Marlins but has a .745 on-base-plus-slugging mark that is 100 points above his career average.
“He’s ready for whatever moment comes,” McCullough said, “and I think organizationally, we believe that there’s a better offensive player than he had shown in his limited big-league time.”
.JPG)