The Show Notes #9: Free Esteury Ruiz
Afro-Dominican outfielder Esteury Ruiz should be on the Oakland A's 25-man roster.
The Athletics franchise is inextricably linked to Black Baseball culture, being one of the main teams in the American League to benefit from The Integration Advantage, specifically from the 1960s to the late 1990s. Coincidentally, the organization’s path across the country during the 20th century took it to some of the primary metro areas where African Americans moved during the first and second waves of The Great Migration.
The entire scenario involving the movement of the Athletics franchise from Oakland, California to Las Vegas, Nevada encapsulates late capitalism’s systematic plundering of Americana to feed the greedy few at the top pulling the strings. For many reasons, history will not look kindly upon those who decided to put this drastic travesty in motion, even if they figure out a way to stumble into a best-case scenario. All 29 team owners and MLB’s commissioner are responsible for stripping Oakland of its notoriously vibrant sports culture by supporting a poorly thought-out business venture from one of the most fiscally incapable and least competent owners in professional sports history across the entire Global North, not just in the United States.
There is an extremely long list of notable Black players who have worn green and gold for multiple years from every generation of Black Baseball in MLB. It includes Rickey Henderson, Reggie Jackson, Dave Stewart, Tony Phillips, Vida Blue, Dave Henderson, Marcus Semien, Dwayne Murphy, Blue Moon Odom, and Khris Davis. Outfielders Lawrence Butler and Esteury Ruiz are the newest members of this fraternity and both have the tools to etch their names in the books. Instead of making their names known in the Oakland Coliseum for the foreseeable future, they will be forced to play in a substandard park and use facilities that barely meet MLB standards in Sacramento after the end of the 2024 season.
The way that the A’s brain trust has handled Afro-Dominican outfielder Esteury Ruiz during the first month of the 2024 season captures the sheer incompetence and negativity embedded in the organization. After setting the American League record for stolen bases by a rookie during the 2023 season and starting the 2024 season with a .429/.375/.857 across three games, he was inexplicably demoted to Triple-A while being one of the best position players on the least talented and least expensive 40-man roster in MLB. During his 11-game stint in Triple-A before being called back up to the A’s 25-man roster, he went .326/.423/.581 across 52 plate appearances with two doubles, three home runs, and seven stolen bases.
While the A’s organization has said Ruiz was demoted so he could overhaul his swing completely, there is a plethora of evidence supporting the idea that he was punished and/or he is having his service time manipulated. He wore a wristband supporting the “Last Dive Bar” organization during the 2023 season in solidarity with Oakland A’s fans protesting the team’s relocation and current ownership.
"Cutting down on strikeouts and getting on base are things that we talked to him about all last season. He did make some good adjustments this spring. We saw an improvement in his exit velocity and some better at-bats. But the reality is, to use his skills, he needs to get on base. … He needs to be able to do that on a consistent basis. I'm hoping with him leading off every day in Triple-A, it's not a long stay for him down there." - Oakland A’s GM David Forst
The bigger accusation here is the potential service time manipulation which could alter when Ruiz reaches free agency, how many years of arbitration he will have, and how much money he will make during the 2024 season. Many accounts have shown the A’s front office to be vindictive, petty, and skittish up to this point, so this entire scenario has the stench of legitimacy rather than one of a conspiracy theory. The A’s brass has walked the fine line well as it pertains to asking questions about the handling of Ruiz, so time will tell if there is fire where there is a thick plume of smoke.
Great stuff, Pat