Jordan Bastian from bluejays.com twitters that Randy Ruiz has been called up from AAA Las Vegas to replace the released Alex Rios. Give the Jays credit for calling up a player whose last name begins with "R" and also has four letters. You'll know the team is in real cost-cutting mode if he wears #15 because the "R" is in already in place and they can recycle the "I" by moving it over. They'll have to shell out for a "U" and "Z". I hope it doesn't kill the team's budget. Actually, he was wearing #3 in Spring Training so that may be the number he'll wind up with.
Update 08/11/2009 @ 7:00 pm: Ruiz will indeed be wearing #3. I'm sure Rogers is happy it's only one number to sew on the jersey.
The 31 year-old Ruiz gets his second cup of java in the majors after playing 22 games with the Minnesota Twins last season where he put up a line of .274/.338/.355 with a homer, two doubles and seven RBI. The 6-1, 240 pound right-handed hitting slugger has been to the Rogers Centre already where he played twice last September but he only drew a walk in five plate appearances while striking out twice.
This season, Ruiz has been smoking the ball with Las Vegas to the tune of 25 homers and 106 RBI while posting a line of .320./392/.584. He was named the 51's representative at the Pacific Coast League's All-Star Game. He was first signed as a free agent with Cincinnati in 1999 and has made stops in the Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York Yankees, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and San Francisco organizations. He also has a couple of minor league batting titles to his credit in 2000 with Clinton and 2005 with Reading. However, Ruiz was also busted twice for violating MLB's substance abuse policy by testing positive for Stanozolol, Ben Johnson's steroid of choice.
Ruiz has overcome the odds to get to the bigs already and he now has another shot to prove his worth at the big league level.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20090811161725829