Baltimore Orioles: Rio Ruiz Swinging A Hot Bat In August

After a demotion to the minors and the birth of a son, Rio Ruiz has returned to the majors swinging a red hot bat for the Baltimore Orioles.

Rio Ruiz is one of the many Baltimore Orioles looking to showcase their talents at the big league level for a rebuilding ball-club looking to find pieces to build with going forward.

Ruiz was originally a fourth-round draft choice of the Houston Astros back in 2012 but prior to the 2015 season was shipped to the Atlanta Braves in a five-player deal. The infielder spent parts of three seasons with Atlanta but never played more than the 53 games he appeared in 2017 as he was often on the minor league shuttle.

This past off-season Ruiz was claimed off waivers by the Orioles and made Baltimore’s opening day lineup. The season did not get off to the best start however as he slashed .230/.304/.315 in his first four and a half months as an Oriole. On July 24th Ruiz was optioned to Triple-A where he was quickly placed on the temporarily inactive list. Ruiz’s wife had given birth to a son, which led Baltimore to assign Ruiz to Double-A Bowie to be closer to his family. After playing in both Bowie and Norfolk for a few weeks, Ruiz was recalled on August 9th after DJ Stewart was placed on the injured list.

Ever since returning to the majors Ruiz has been a whole different player. In the month of August Ruiz is slashing .350/.458/.850 with three home runs and eight RBI’s. One of his home runs came in walk-off fashion as the 25-year-old slugged a two-run game-winning homer off of Houston Astros closer Roberto Osuna.

While August has been a monster month for Ruiz, he still has a lot of work to do if he wants Mike Elias and company to consider keeping him around past 2019, but he is finally starting to show why he was once a fourth-round draft pick.