Dominican in New York

My name is Yeixon Ruiz, and in 2009 I was signed by the New York Mets and was given a $10,000 bonus. I’m going to share a bit about my career in the minor leagues.

 In my first year playing professional ball, I played in 2010 in the Dominican Summer League, which is the lower level in the Mets minor league system. It was a great experience for me, as I was able to achieve some of my dreams of belonging to a Major League team. After putting in the time and working hard, I was able to put up reasonable numbers for a rookie, but I could not go to the United States the following year, since I still had much to learn about the basics of the game. 

In my third year, I was able to go to the United States and because of my performance in my training, I was able to make the Kingsport Mets. Knowing that I wasn’t a high player bonus signing, I wasn’t a regular player, and I had to be the one to come off the bench. But after a great performance, I became a regular in my position and I played most of the time.

The following year I returned and I was in the same league and I had a better season at the plate and I was able to open up the eyes of my bosses. Thanks to my hard work, I was invited to the Instructional league where I learned a lot. 

In 2014, I was invited to my first minor league spring training and then I made the Class-A Advanced team, the Port St. Lucie Mets. But one week before the season started, I suffered an injury to my hamstring and it took a couple of months of playing in the extended league and when it finished, they sent me to play with Port St. Lucie in the Florida State League. 

But the life of a player like me, who signed for a low bonus, is usually considered an alternate player. In all the leagues I played in, I was a substitute player, and didn’t get a chance to play for several days, until they gave the stars a day off. But thanks to my great determination and my desire to excel, I always ended up playing almost every day. 

I was with the Mets for about six years and several months, before I was released in March of this past year, 2016, and then I signed with an organization in the Independent league, where I played this past summer.

My desire is to continue playing baseball, especially since there are several teams that believe just because an organization releases their players, its because the ball player no longer has potential, and it is not true. I still have a lot of potential, and that is what I want to demonstrate with another team that gives me the opportunity. But everything that has happened in my career, I give thanks to God because He is the only one who knows why things happen.

This was a recount of my life in the minor leagues, as I was able to play as high as Double-A with the Binghamton Mets.

About the author: Yeixon Ruiz was born on March 19, 1991 and is a native of San Jose de Ocoa, Dominican Republic. In 2009, he signed a contract with the New York Mets and played in their minor league system from 2010 -2015, reaching as high as Double-A. He was released in March 2016 and signed a contract to play with the Trois-RivieresAigles, an Independent club in the Canadian-American Association. Yeixon is still pursuing his dream of playing in the majors as he shares that journey for Legends on Deck en Español in his native language of Spanish.