BRONX, NY — Heading into Tuesday night’s chilly affair between the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees, there were a grand total of two players amongst both teams, hitting over a .300 batting average on the young 2024 MLB season. Take a guess…
A’s center fielder Esteury Ruiz, of Azua, Dominican Republic, and Yankees right fielder Juan Soto, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Oakland Athletics OF Esteury Ruiz 🇩🇴 a finalist for the 2023 American League LatinoMVP Rookie of the Year award 🏆 taking some swings prior to A’s-Yankees in the Bronx 🗽#LatinoSports #MLB | #Athletics #RepBX pic.twitter.com/KfXxfkrvIb
— Latino Sports (@LatinoSports) April 23, 2024
The duo of Dominican Republic natives have much more in common than just performing well at-the-plate — as they were each named a finalist on the Official Ballot for the 34th Annual LatinoMVP Awards — Ruiz in the 2023 American League LatinoMVP Rookie of the Year category & Soto for the 2023 National League LatinoMVP, who won the very-same award in 2021: NL LatinoMVP.
🇩🇴 Juan Soto in #Yankees batting practice ⚾️🗽#LatinoSports #RepBX #MLB pic.twitter.com/qLDNhjtCkM
— Latino Sports (@LatinoSports) April 23, 2024
STAT WATCH: Prior to Tuesday’s Yankees 4-3 win over the Athletics, Ruiz was batting .375, while Soto was at .322. Following the game, Ruiz dropped to .350, and Soto to .319. As it stands, they remain the only two players between both franchises currently over the .300 BA mark.
Robert Rizzo is a journalist and editor of Latino Sports – Email: RobertRiz994@gmail.com
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Julio
April 24, 2024 at 8:11 am
Two LatinoMVP FINALIST & only 2 batting over .300 for their teams. I guess our awards continue to be a good indicator of the quality of Latino players in MLB.