Speedster Esteury Ruiz is currently the major league leader in stolen bases. The 24 year old rookie for the Oakland Athletics swiped his 30th stolen base of the year on Friday night against his former team in the Milwaukee Brewers. He is the first player to reach 30 stolen bases this season.
Esteury Ruiz was briefly a Brewer last season as he was acquired from the San Diego Padres in the Josh Hader deal. A few months later he was involved in the three team trade that sent Sean Murphy to the Braves and William Contreras to Milwaukee.
Prior to being a Brewer he spent quite a few seasons in the Padres minor league system. Before that he was previously a Kansas City Royal. The Royals initially signed him in 2015 and ended up trading him to San Diego in 2017 in order to acquire Brandon Maurer, Ryan Buchter and Trevor Cahil.
Now with Oakland, Esteury Ruiz is making a name for himself as the team’s leadoff hitter.
Esteury Ruiz is on pace to break a rookie record for stolen bases.
The Athletics are 65 games into the 2023 season and Esteury Ruiz has 30 stolen bases. He’s the first A’s player to do this since Ricky Henderson who had 32 through 65 games in 1990. If this pace continues he will reach 74 stolen bases this year.
Should Ruiz accomplish 74 stolen bases he would set a rookie record in that category. Kenny Lofton currently has the AL rookie single-season record for stolen bases with 66.
