BIOGRAPHY
Rio Ruiz was born May 22, 1994, in Covina, California. He is a third baseman in the MLB.
Ruiz attended Bishop Amat Memorial High School in La Puente, California. He played both baseball and football. Ruiz verbally committed to attend the University of Southern California (USC) as a 14-year-old freshman to play for the USC Trojans baseball team. As a junior, he was named The San Gabriel Valley Tribune's Baseball Player of the Year. He was considered a potential first-round pick in the 2012 Major League Baseball Draft entering his senior season.
The Baltimore Orioles claimed Ruiz off waivers on December 10, 2018. He entered the 2017 season ranked by MLB.com as Atlanta's No. 23 prospect and went on to split the campaign between the major league club and Triple-A Gwinnett Braves. Ruiz played in a combined 156 games while batting .232 (125-for-538) with 20 home runs and 75 RBI. He hit a career-most 20 combined home runs between Triple-A and the majors (16 MiLB, 4 MLB). He hit his first career major league home run on 5/20 with a two-out, two-run shot off Washington's Max Scherzer.
He became the first Brave to hit his first career home run off a Cy Young award winner since Evan Gattis did so off Roy Halladay on 4/3/2013. He had a pinch-hit single to score the winning run, 6/9 vs. the Mets for his first career game ending RBI. He became the first pinch-hitter for the Braves to collect a game-ending RBI since Juan Francisco did so on 8/17/12 vs. LAD. He batted .247 (96-for-388) with 25 doubles, a MiLB career-best 16 HR, and 56 RBI in 103 games. He earned Gwinnett's team award as the G-Braves Most Competitive Player for the 2017 season. Ruiz led the G-Braves in doubles (25), home runs (career-high 16, fifth-most in Braves' MiLB system) and RBI (56), ranked second in total bases (173) and slugging percentage (.446). He hit the lone game-ending home run by a G-Brave in 2017 on 4/29 vs. Pawtucket (Game 2 at McCoy Stadium) with a two-run shot off RHP Chandler Shepherd for a 3-1 win.
He played in 130 games for Triple-A Gwinnett, leading the Stripers in hits (134), runs (72), and doubles (25).
In his free time, Rio Ruiz is a full-time dad.