Milwaukee Brewers: 4 Possible Third Base trade targets
By Kenny Jilek
Rio Ruiz – Baltimore Orioles
After a big fish in Devers, we’ll reel in our expectations with a slightly more likely candidate in Rio Ruiz of the Baltimore Orioles. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: 1. No one from that awful organization could possibly help us and 2. Who is Rio Ruiz?
Those are 100 percent valid points, so let me try to address them for you. First, the Orioles actually have 20 players with a WAR above zero, meaning they are better than a replacement-level player and thus they can help a team win. Rio Ruiz is a 26-year-old third baseman who was drafted in the 4th round by the Houston Astros and saw his first major league action in 2016 but didn’t get consistent playing time until last year.
In 2019, the first season he was given over 200 at-bats to prove himself, he slashed .232/.306/.376 for an OPS of .682 and OPS+ of 82. That’s not great, but this season, in a small sample size, he’s putting up better numbers, getting him to an above-average OPS+ of 109. This is because of a surge of power to start the year.
In his first 539 at-bats in the major leagues, he hit just 16 home runs and slugged .353, but this season, he’s already hit six big flies and is slugging .475. He’s also been a plus defender, with a .985 fielding percentage, and those zone fielding and runs saved stats from before that are well into the negatives for Devers are +4 and +3 for Ruiz.
The real question for Ruiz is whether this power is sustainable, as his batting average and on-base percentage have actually taken dips this year. If he stops hitting the ball out of the ballpark, his value tanks and he’s no better than any other of the Milwaukee Brewers’ options at third base. However, Miller Park is very hitter-friendly, especially to left-handed hitters like Ruiz and he could even see a bigger jump in power numbers with Milwaukee.
Ruiz is even cheaper than Devers as he has an extra year of team control in 2021 before going into arbitration in 2022. The Orioles would certainly argue in trade talks that this power surge is just the beginning for Ruiz, but his trade value can’t be that high because he simply isn’t proven yet.
The Orioles could desperately use some young prospects, especially in the pitching department where almost their whole rotation is over 30 years old. Maybe a minor league arm or two would be enough to get Ruiz in a Milwaukee Brewers’ uniform.