Brewers: Ranking The Crew’s Top 3 September Call Up Candidates

Ranking the Brewers top 3 September call up prospect candidates

Brewers September Call Up Candidate #2: OF Esteury Ruiz

The Josh Hader trade presented an inflection point in the Brewers season. They traded away a beloved All Star closer, and received only one big league contributor in return at the moment. It should’ve been two, but I digress. They also received two prospects, one of whom is Esteury Ruiz.

Ruiz was the only position player the Brewers added to their organization at the Trade Deadline. He has dominated Triple-A this season and previously earned a call up with the Padres, so he has some big league experience, although just a handful of at-bats.

He is fast, he has been an on-base machine, a stolen base machine, and could provide a massive spark atop the lineup. Since joining the Brewers organization, Ruiz is hitting .304 with a .381 OBP, and 17 hits in 15 games.

There are two things working in Ruiz’s favor for a September call up, the first is that he was a key piece in the Josh Hader trade. Getting production from him on the big league club could help the clubhouse understand the trade better and get them back to normal. Secondly, Ruiz is already on the 40 man roster.

Unlike Frelick, the Brewers would not need to clear a 40 man roster spot to add Ruiz to the active roster when it expands in September. That makes it much easier to choose Ruiz and see what he can do in this lineup while giving Frelick a bit more time in the minors. Ruiz has been in the upper level all season and already has some big league time.

Because of the way in which he was acquired and the fact he’s already on the 40 man, Ruiz gets ranked as a much more likely candidate to earn that September call up than Frelick.

He was incredibly close to getting the top spot on this list, and I debated making him and this next prospect 1a and 1b.