On August 16, 2020, 22-year-old Dodgers catcher Keibert Ruiz hit a line drive down the right-field line off of Angels veteran All-Star right-hander Julio Teheran for a third-inning leadoff home run.

It was Ruiz’s first major league at-bat.

When the Valencia, Venezuela native and Dodgers top-ranked prospect returned to the dugout, his teammates razzed him, telling him: “See? Baseball is easy.”

Three days later, Ruiz collected his second major league hit, albeit only a single, to finish the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season having gone 2-for-8 (.250) with the one home run, one RBI, and three strikeouts.

When Dodgers pitchers and catchers reported for Spring Training 2021 on February 17, everyone was there.

…except Keibert Ruiz.

As it turned out, Ruiz had what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called “visa issues” getting from Venezuela into the United States; issues that took nearly a month to resolve.

But the young backstop eventually made it to Camelback Ranch, cleared MLB’s COVID-19 intake protocols, and quickly got to work, with Roberts noting that his young catcher was “in great shape” and would “get in a Cactus League game soon.”

During a Zoom interview on Friday morning, 23-year-old Dodgers right-hander Dustin May was asked if he has had a chance to talk with his former minor league battery mate.

“Yeah, he caught my bullpen the other day; yeah, he looked really good,” May answered. “Me and him got really close in the minor leagues, so, yeah, it was good to catch up with him and kind of get him there in camp and get him to be able to be around guys.”

Sure enough, Ruiz entered Friday afternoon’s game against the Cleveland Indians in the top of the seventh inning and roped a line drive down the right-field line off of Indians right-hander DJ Johnson for a two-run double.

It was Ruiz’s first at-bat of the Spring.

“See? Baseball is easy.”

Play Ball!

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