One day, in the distant future, you might find yourself in a really boring work meeting that could have been a text message on your wrist terminal (yes, we’re moving to wearable technology, we’ll never get rid of work meetings) and you’ll pick up Sporcle, even more excited than now, and try to recall the entire group of players who made up the star-crossed, but also just really bad, 2025 Atlanta Braves. You remember Cal Quantrill and Alex Verdugo because they were terrible. You may remember Kevin Herget because he is not Jimmy Herget, who was with the Braves in 2024. You’re probably typing Eddie Rosario out of habit. But you will absolutely forget about Jose Ruiz.
The Braves claimed Jose Ruiz waived by the Phillies in early June, just as their playoff chances were rising and plummeting like a lead balloon. That made them Ruiz’s fifth MLB organization since signing with the Padres of Venezuela in 2011. He would add a sixth before the 2025 season came to an end.
What were the expectations?
Writing about Ruiz’s career is probably more fun than the actual content of this review; I hope it is also more fun to read. Ruiz was originally signed as a catcher, but gained virtually no traction as a hitter and eventually converted to a pitcher. He pitched about 12 professional innings the season he converted, and his Rule 5 clock twitched, so AJ Preller did what he was known for and… added Ruiz to the 40-man roster to avoid getting a guy shot exactly one inning above Low-A.
Ultimately, this was a bit pointless. Ruiz struggled as a pitcher in High-A in 2017 (and made his Major League debut anyway, good old Preller never disappoints), but was subsequently pushed off the 40-man roster and claimed by the White Sox, where he spent a lot of time as a yo-yo arm during that one decent Major League relief season (2021) with little else positive to speak of. After a sub-replacement in 2022 and a horrible start to 2023, it was Arizona’s turn to gamble on the Venezuelan, but he was terrible there too.
Minor League Free Agency brought him to Philadelphia, where he pitched quite well in 2024 (88/102/90 ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-), but was stung by the old HR/FB rate. The same pattern repeated itself before the Phillies DFA (191/128/105) him in 2025, but considering he didn’t really pitch well, I’m sure the Phillies didn’t mind the Braves claiming him.
Overall, Ruiz had -0.1 fWAR and a 102/110/107 line as a Major Leaguer over approximately 270 innings. He was another level of replacement if not lower, I hope you don’t have to use him as your 26th man.
The Braves claimed Ruiz on June 7, added him to the roster on June 8, DFAed him on June 20, traded him on June 22 and traded him for Dane Dunning less than a month after going outright. In the meantime, Ruiz made two appearances with the Braves. His first came while trailing 3-1, in which he struckout two, but also walked in a walk. His second came in a blowout loss to the Rockies, where he walked two and also gave up a run at one point.
Combine those two performances with his time with the Phillies, which earned him DFA status for the first time during the season, and he had a total fWAR of -0.2 with a line of 207/127/112. Same guy as before, worse HR/FB fortunes and a miserable time all around.
Well, in his first appearance with the team, he was put into a bases-loaded, no-out situation and actually came away with just one run… except for that run that was scored as a result of a walk. Here’s him striking out Jackson Chourio before that walk:
He also pitched well at Triple-A, including with the Rangers (he didn’t make it back to the Majors with them).
His fastball pitch shape still looked good as well.
His performance against the Rockies, as previously mentioned, saw him stop a run. So in two appearances he gave up a walk and a run.
However, the things that went wrong were the same things that have plagued him in his career. His command is… not the best… and he throws a few pitches, but only the fastball seems unequivocally a reasonable pitch. He’s got a weird turbo curve-cutter thing (which he hit Chourio on above), but he can’t really control it, and he’s experimented with a sinker grip, even though his arm action and release make the four-seam work better. His fastball velocity is also declining, and has likely started sooner than expected. It’s a bit of a weird profile where teams don’t really know what to do with it.
Ruiz continued to pay his dues for the Rangers in Triple-A after the trade and opted for free agency at the end of the season. He’ll likely get a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training, because why not? But 2025 marked the first time since 2018 that he spent most of his time in the minors, and he has posted a combined fWAR of -0.9 over his last four seasons. He’s probably significantly below replacement level at this point, and like most of us, he’s not getting any younger.
Anyway, maybe you’ll do better on Future-Sporcle after reading this. I tried it.
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