Randy

Ruiz

Ruiz has spent the past two seasons with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Pacific League. The 34-year-old has had brief stints in the majors with the Blue Jays and Twins and is likely to serve as minor league depth.

Ruiz is reportedly going to explore offers from Japanese clubs. He was batting .331/.395/.624 with 14 homers and 53 RBI in 49 games for the Snakes’ Triple-A affiliate.

Ruiz, 35, was batting .370 with six homers and a 1.020 OPS in 37 games this season while playing in the Mexican League. He’ll serve as organizational depth in Triple-A.

Ruiz spent the majority of last season with the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate, but requested his release in June and finished out the year in Japan’s Central League. The 35-year-old hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2010 and is strictly organizational depth.

The Jays don’t appear ready to reveal any further information, which is, of course, their prerogative. “We were actually playing a man short,” Gaston said after Wednesday’s game. “It’s just some personal things.” Ruiz is expected to be available Thursday against the White Sox.

Before Adam Lind replaced him as the DH and struck out in all three of his at-bats. Ruiz hadn’t played in six days because of a personal issue that had him away from the Jays.

“I’m just trying to get Ruiz in there once in a while,” Gaston said. “I’m going to do my best to try to get him in a couple days a week, if I can. We’ll see what happens.” This proclamation may have come sooner, but Ruiz missed six days earlier this month while away from the club tending to a personal issue. Although he is hitting only .167 this year, Ruiz hit .313, with 10 homers and 17 RBI in 33 games with Toronto in 2009. Lyle Overbay, meanwhile, is hitting .179 and might lose some at-bats to Ruiz, according to Gaston.

Randy Ruiz will be the designated hitter, batting third against Tim Wakefield.

Ruiz has signed a contract with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Pacific League. After impressing as a late-season call-up in ’09, the 32-year-old batted .150/.150/.275 with one home run and one RBI in 40 at-bats with the Blue Jays this season.

Ruiz, 27, was hitting .356/.413/.678 for Double-A Reading. And now we have a better idea of how he was doing it.