February 18, 2016
Watching friends – people he considered family members, really – move on to new teams and new challenges was tough on Carlos Ruiz.
You saw it in his eyes on a whirlwind of a Wednesday night in Toronto last July, when word of the Cole Hamels trade first surfaced after a Phillies-Blue Jays game, just four days after catching his long time battery partner’s no-hitter in Chicago. You could see it in his reaction to seeing familiar faces – even if they were the faces of media members – when the clubhouse doors opened to visitors on Wednesday in Clearwater.
For as long as he’s been around – he broke into his first big league lineup 10 years ago this May – Carlos Ruiz has been the most popular person inside the Phillies clubhouse among anyone who regularly calls the ballpark their place of business. Fellow players, coaches, managers, clubhouse attendants, broadcasters, media – you name it.
“This organization is part of my life,” he said. “My goal is to retire here. But, you know, it’s not only me it’s also the front office and I don’t know what they think. So I’ll just play hard, try to do my best and hopefully stay here.”
When Ruiz follows the rest of his long-time teammates out the exit door, he’ll leave that legacy, one that is unrivaled among catchers in Phillies history: a World Series ring, a National League Championship ring, an All-Star appearance, four no-hitters (including both a perfect game and one of only two in MLB history in the postseason), and the admiration of everyone who watched him go about his business.
But Ruiz would kindly ask that you stop writing his Wall of Fame induction introduction. Unlike Utley and Rollins and Hamels, he’s still in a Phillies uniform this spring and he’s not ready to call it quits yet, despite moving down a rung on the team’s catching depth chart last summer.
“Everything that happened last year, that’s over,” Ruiz said on Thursday morning, before Phillies pitchers and catchers took part in their first official workout of the 2016 season. “I’m coming into this year with a different mentality. I’m ready to go. I want to show I can still play and hopefully I can stay healthy and do my best.”
Ruiz easily had his worst season in 2015: he hit .211 with a .575 OPS in 86 games. All three were career lows. And the 86 games wasn’t a result of a stint on the disabled list (something he had been unable to avoid in the three preceding years) but instead because the coaching staff and front office wanted to see more from his younger catching counterpart, Cameron Rupp.
Rupp didn’t exactly burst onto the scene as a must-see rookie – he hit .233 with a .301 OBP in 81 games – but he showed modest power, particularly in the final two months of the season when he was penciled in as the regular catcher. Rupp had eight home runs in his final 38 games in 2015.
Ruiz, of course, doesn’t view Rupp with any animosity – it’s quite the opposite. He roots for all of his teammates, no matter what position they play, and says it’s all “the same team, same unit (with) the same goal of winning.”
First-year manager Pete Mackanin - who has called Ruiz one of his favorite all-time players - puts a lot of value on what his veteran catcher can still bring to a big league team.
"Carlos has been around, he caught in two World Series, he caught no-hitters," Mackanin said. "He has one of the best work ethics of any player I've ever been around. He is one of the most pleasant people to be around. He doesn't take his offense behind the plate with him. He takes a lot of pride in his defense and game-calling ability. That's something that's rare to find. That's a winning catcher."
The 37-year old Ruiz – the oldest player in a clubhouse of 65 men this spring – has pride like anyone else, though. He doesn’t want to be banished to the bench as his time with the only major league organization he’s ever known winds down.
Does he have expectations to be in the lineup on Opening Day, or play more regularly than in 2015?
“You know that was my goal, to play everyday, because I believe I can still play everyday,” said Ruiz, who dealt with an ailing left shoulder throughout the 2015 season. “But like I said, it’s not my control, the only thing I have control of is what I do on the field. I’m ready, so we’ll see what happens when the games start.”
It was nearly 18 years ago – in December of 1998 – when a teenage infielder from Panama was plucked by the Phillies by way of an $8,000 signing bonus. Ruiz defied the odds and became not only a major league player, but a fixture on some of the greatest teams in the history of the Phillies franchise.
He wants to retire in a Phillies uniform, but he knows that could very well be out of his control. Ruiz, who will earn $8.5 million this season, is in the final year of a 3-year, $26 million deal. The contract includes a club option ($4.5 million) in 2017; the Phillies also have the option to exercise a $500,000 buyout for 2017 instead.
“I miss those guys [like Utley, Hamels and Rollins]. They’re a part of my family. But at the same time, I enjoy being here with the young guys. And I can’t wait [to get started].”
With top prospects Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knapp on the major league radar, Ruiz isn’t like to be back in 2017. It’s down to just him and Ryan Howard as the last standing members of the 2008 Phillies.
And, as 2016 gets underway, he doesn’t want to let himself think about where he’ll be this time next year, or whether or not he’ll have to put on an unfamiliar uniform top as many of his ex-teammates did in 2015.
“This organization is part of my life,” he said. “My goal is to retire here. But, you know, it’s not only me it’s also the front office and I don’t know what they think. So I’ll just play hard, try to do my best and hopefully stay here.”
And as for no longer looking to his right and seeing Utley, Hamels, and the rest of his former teammates who have moved on, only to see fresh-faced kids changing at their locker stalls?
“I miss those guys,” Ruiz said. “They’re a part of my family. But at the same time, I enjoy being here with the young guys. And I can’t wait [to get started].”
