After stealing 67 bases in 2023, Esteury Ruiz was a hot draft pick going into 2024. He was only being taken around 125th overall that year. Your return on that investment, if you were bold (dumb) enough to grab him there for stolen bases, was a .200 batting average over 65 Plate appearaces to go along with two Home Runs and five Stolen Bases.
Here’s the final line:
.200/10/2/9/5
Folks, Esteury Ruiz is why we talk about SAGNOF in the first place. You don’t have to pay for guys like him in the 10th round of the draft in 2024 when you can find him on the waiver wire in June 2026. If he hasn’t been snatched up yet, that is. There are always guys like Ruiz that pop up as the season goes along, and those are the guys we’re here to help find! Did I mention the last article, lead Cooper Pratt has already stolen three bases in 22 plate appearances since getting called up?
So far this season, Ruiz is rocking a .260/19/4/9/14 stat line in 87 plate appearances already eclipsing the 2024 campaign. Ruiz is batting .385 with an impressive 1.289 OPS and multiple stolen bases across limited June at-bats. He has been seeing more everyday opportunities due to his hot streak and some general offensive struggles from other outfielders.
His K-Rate still isn’t great at 28.7% for a guy with his speed, but his BABIP looks like it is at his 2023 and minor league levels again, so he should continue to get on base and have chances to run. When he does run its at 29.7 Ft/Sec, which is good for 13th in MLB. He has been caught three times so far, so he doesn’t always get the best jumps, but 67/80 in 2023 was about the same percentage, so we’ll take it.
I’d look for Ruiz to continue to earn starts as long as the batting average stays respectable, and he is worth a waiver wire pickup today if still available in your leagues.
Here’s this week’s Stolen Bases Leaderboard
The Speed Dials
Real quick picks this week. 0 for 1 last time out and 2 for 11 on the season. These are correctly predicting Stolen Base streamers on exact days.
Wednesday, June 24th – Royals vs Rays
John Rave – He finally got a couple of starts this last week, and I hope they didn’t call him back up just to watch Starling Marte strike out. In the minors this season, he is hitting .278 with 10 Home Runs and 16 Stolen Bases. He should be playing every day against righties in the outfield, I would hope. He’ll face Griffin Jax and the Rays. Jax doesn’t allow many runners to steal at .065 SB/IP, but those who do go are succeeding at 90%.
Thursday, June 25th – Mets vs Cubs
A.J. Ewing – He was one of our SAGNOF leads earlier in the year and has seven stolen bases now on the season. 29.5 Ft/Second sprint speed puts him tied for 23rd in MLB. He is batting in the middle of the Mets order almost every day. He’ll face Ben Brown and the Cubs. Assad allows only .080 SB/IP, but a lot of that is based on limiting traffic. Opposing runners are 13/13 against him when they do go.
