Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Giants hoped the Arizona sun would illuminate young talent who could inject hope into a Giants season that is expected to be yet another gap year.
Instead, the Cactus League has most notably breathed new life into a 33-year-old whose last major league game came on Oct. 1, 2016.
In the desert, is Darin Ruf a sight to see or a mirage?
The non-roster invitee is sizzling, fresh off a 6-for-6 weekend in which he blasted a pair of home runs Saturday and three doubles Sunday. In the minuscule sample size of 25 plate appearances, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound lumberjack is slashing .455/.480/1.045.
A season about the future, with righty corner outfielders like Jaylin Davis and Austin Slater expected to see significant time, has been interrupted before it’s begun by a 20th-round draft pick in 2009 by the Phillies. A player the Giants are curious about, but their trepidation is about on par with yours.
“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,” Gabe Kapler said during Ruf’s whirlwind weekend. “At the same time, we understand that these are spring training games. That should be taken into consideration as well.”
For Ruf, the early (and loud) results are encouraging because it inspires belief that his swing tweaks are working. The first baseman/left fielder spent the last three seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization, where he said his swing got too long and a bit pull-heavy; “they just want you to hit homers over there.”
If he didn’t realize how long it had gotten, it would be understandable. He said if he wanted to review video of his swing, he would need to use the broadcast feed. If he wanted instruction from hitting coaches, he would need to receive messages from translators who “don’t always know baseball very well.”
He now has a more pronounced leg kick under the direction of a three-headed hitting coach in Donnie Ecker, Justin Viele and Dustin Lind. He now has all the high-tech equipment he could possibly ask for.
“Very drastic,” he said of the technology difference, which has resulted in a swing with a bit more uppercut. “… You can’t really analyze your swing [in Korea] like you can here. Here they have iPads for the cages and film those swings and really bear down when you’re practicing to make sure you’re practicing right.”
If there is a concern about his swings, it’s an exceptionally minor one. Most of the balls he’s been crushing — fastballs and offspeed, off righties and lefties, though he was brought in to face the latter — have been toward right-center, staying inside the ball and smacking it the other way. Ruf remembered a game early in his career when he “hit a nice little double into Triples Alley” at Oracle Park, and the Giants would love the big man to pull homers, too.
Big fan of Darin Ruf and his subtle bat toss pic.twitter.com/OKljBXLC4L
— Winfield Barndollar (@MissedCutoffMan) March 8, 2020
Of course, the assumption he will continue destroying pitches to any part of the field is dicey. Ruf is a project and not a young one, whose speed will limit him defensively. He could be a righty complement to Brandon Belt at first and has played left, where he roamed for three innings Sunday and said he feels comfortable.
“I thought he looked fine out there today,” said Kapler, who added, “We certainly want to see as many reps [in left] as possible.”
The Giants, fresh off sending 17 players to minor league camp, want to see as much of Ruf as possible to discern if this is legitimate, and they will find ways to test him during the Cactus League. Carrying Ruf could mean Davis and/or Slater begin at Triple-A Sacramento, prospects they want to see more of, too. There is more than Ruf’s story — which includes 286 big-league games with Philadelphia, where he hit for power but not enough to justify his low average and on-base percentage — to consider.
Ruf’s story also entails another try at MLB life in large part to keep his family together; he wanted to be there for his pregnant wife, due in April, and see his newborn rather than leaving his family behind as he returned to South Korea.
The timing was right. As is his timing at the plate.