Since Aiden Ruiz was 2 years old, his mom has had to battle with her little slugger to take off his baseball uniform, which he wore with pride after every Little League game.
“He would fight with me to take his cleats off,” Christina Ruiz told The Post.
“I had to let him take a nap so I could get his cleats off, so he could go to bed.”
It was a clear foreshadowing that the Stony Brook School’s standout shortstop had a bright future on the diamond after senior year, as Ruiz has lots of noise around his name ahead of the 2026 MLB draft in July.
“That was always a dream,” said Ruiz, the 38th-ranked draft prospect by Major League Baseball.
“I’ve always had that self-confidence when I step on the field that I can turn the game around,” added the soon-to-be high school grad, who is 19 because of a double eighth-grade year due to COVID.
With ease for Ruiz
Ruiz is no stranger to big moments and bigger personalities; the Vanderbilt commit won gold with Team USA in the World Championship and was named All-World shortstop in 2025, has played with the Yankees Area Code team, and trained with his “mentor,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor.
“We always talk about fielding,” Ruiz said of getting to know Lindor. “It’s always cool to meet your heroes.”
He’s also close pals with former teammate and University of Virginia ace Jayden Stroman, son of former Yankees and Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman, who had a stint at Stony Brook before transferring to play public school ball at Patchogue-Medford in 2025.
“That bond over the years, pushing each other to be better and learning the game together,” Ruiz said. “It definitely strengthened our friendship.”
He and Stroman have been on the same teams and in the opposite dugouts since they were both 12, and they’re eager to mix it up again in the NCAA one day — should Ruiz have to wait a bit to hear his name called for the bigs, that is.
“It would be sick. That’s definitely something we’ve talked about before.”
Heading for home
Ruiz is next in a family lineage that treated baseball as second only to God in their Woodhaven, Queens, home. It’s there where he would field hard-hit balls meant for his older brother, Daniel, as a toddler.
“I had a bat and glove in my hand for as long as I could remember,” Ruiz said, adding that his whole family rooted for both the Yankees and Mets in the interest of watching good baseball.
His dad, Sam, played in the minors for the White Sox in the 1980s; Daniel played in college at Ohio Northern a decade ago; his sister, Alyssa, was a competitive high school softball player; and his mom was a longtime softball coach in the World’s Borough.
Ruiz proudly wears No. 45, as Daniel and Alyssa did.
Most of all, Ruiz’s late grandfather, Sandalio, truly put the love for the game into Sam and Aiden since he left Puerto Rico for a new life in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, decades ago.
“My dad was there for every single game since the sandlot,” said Sam, who also played second base and outfield in the Mets and Marlins systems but never reached the majors.
Sandalio, who was also at each of Aiden’s games, predicted a brighter future for his grandson.
“My father would look at me and playfully say, ‘You know he’s better than you, right?’ ” Sam laughed.
Ruiz said losing his beloved grandfather and “the glue to our family” in middle school was the most difficult stretch he ever fought through. Sam added that he deeply regrets that Sandalio isn’t here to see his grandson’s promising days ahead.
Fortunately, dealing with the loss isn’t something Aiden had to do alone, as Sam was always there and gladly carried on the family tradition even years later.
“He would drive up here every day this whole year to work out with me before practice,” Aiden said.
“Just being on the diamond with my dad, it was special. … We spent hours a day, every single day, on the field together,” he added of their years together.
The family is bursting with anticipation for the full-circle moment, hoping to receive good news in July rather than waiting for Ruiz’s next opportunity, which would come after his sophomore year with the Commodores.
Hardly anybody is more excited than Ruiz’s grandma, Hilda, Sandalio’s longtime wife.
“She always said she’s holding on to watch me get drafted,” said Ruiz. “She’s my motivation to keep working hard and play the game.”
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