Norge Luis Ruiz, Cuba’s top pitching prospect, is headed to America
The influx of talent from Cuba has been increasing rapidly in recent months and that continues with a player who many scouts believe was the best pitching prospect remaining on the island.
Norge Luis Ruiz, a 21-year-old right-hander, is headed to America according to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez with the intention of signing a big league contract.
In a subscription-only post less than one month ago, Baseball America’s Ben Badler rated Ruiz the top pitcher in Cuba and its eighth best prospect overall. The early belief is Ruiz’s stuff could translate to a mid-rotation pitcher in MLB, though obviously at 21 there’s still room for development and improvement.
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In 264 innings covering 38 starts and four relief appearances in Cuba, Ruiz posted a 17-11 with a 2.25 ERA. He hasn’t been overpowering with only 164 strikeouts, and he’s walked a bat every three innings, but he’s still been effective.
A big reason? He’s only allowed 10 home runs. Different level of competition of course, but that’s always encouraging.
Badler has more on the time frame in which Ruiz could sign:
While Ruiz will be subject to the international bonus pools, he’s old enough that he won’t be subject to to Major League Baseball’s registration rules, which means he should be able to sign during the upcoming 2015-16 international signing period once he establishes residency and applies for the commissioner’s office for free agency. Since Ruiz will be subject to the bonus pools, he will not be able to sign a major league contract, which means that he will have to sign a minor league contract with all of the money put into his signing bonus, as was the case with Red Sox second baseman Yoan Moncada, Diamondbacks righthander Yoan Lopez and Angels shortstop Roberto Baldoquin.
That means the Angels, Diamondbacks, Rays, Red Sox and Yankees almost certainly won’t be in the running to sign Ruiz because they’ve exceeded their bonus pool limits for 2014-15. As a result, they won’t be able to offer pool-eligible players more than $300,000 for two full years beginning July 2. Obviously, that won’t be enough to sign Ruiz, and there’s no reason for him to wait two years, so the bidding will be open among the 25 remaining teams.
There’s no early word on which teams might be interested, but Ruiz’s market should be established quickly once he starts scheduling workouts.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
