SHOULD WE BELIEVE IN NEW SLUGGER RUF?
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> When Giants manager Gabe Kapler asked his hitting coaches which players they’d like to see more of in Cactus League games, all three mentioned minor league free-agent Darin Ruf.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise the coaching staff is eager to evaluate Ruf considering the gaudy numbers he posted during three seasons with the Samsung Lions in the Korean Baseball Organization and the changes he’s implemented in an effort to shorten his swing.
What should come as a surprise is how easy Ruf makes hitting look. In six at-bats this weekend, Ruf recorded six hits, five of which went for extra bases. The burly slugger launched a pair of towering home runs and pelted the center and right field walls with a combined three doubles.
For Ruf, the results in victories over the White Sox and Mariners are encouraging signs that his success could translate back to the major leagues.
“It’s better than struggling and struggling and then doubts creep into your head if it’s something that will work or if I need to make another adjustment,” Ruf said. “It’s good to know I picked it up fairly quickly.”
For the Giants, the results lead to big-picture questions as to whether Ruf can thrive if given a chance to face tougher pitchers on a more consistent basis.
“I think the success that Darin Ruf is having, particularly to the middle of the field, the extra-base power that he’s displaying is very encouraging,” Kapler said. “At the same time, we understand that these are
spring training games and that should be taken into consideration as well.”
At 33, Ruf is not an upand-coming prospect or a lifelong minor leaguer looking for his big break. From 2012-2016, Ruf appeared in 286 games with the Philadelphia Phillies as he belted 35 home runs and posted a cumulative .747 OPS, which is about 20 points above the league average during that time period.
In 2017, Ruf left MLB to sign with the Samsung Lions where he homered 86 times over three seasons. The pitching talent in Korea isn’t on par with what Ruf saw in the majors, but plenty of pitchers have emerged from the KBO to have prolonged success in the United States.
“(Pitchers in Korea) would probably lean heavily on their off-speed a lot, a lot of fork balls and split pitches, things that work up and down as opposed to side to side,” Ruf told the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast during Sunday’s game. “They have a lot of good spinrate with their four-seam fastballs.”