Jeff Pruitt

Jeffrey Pruitt

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 5", Weight 220 lb.

• School Cal State Northridge
• High School Bishop Alemany High School

• Born January 21, 1988 in Los Angeles, CA USA

BR register page

Biographical Information

Jeff Pruitt has been on the Swedish national team.

He was taken by the Chicago Cubs in the 23rd round of the 2009 amateur draft out of Cal State Northridge, two rounds before Justin Bour, but did not play a game in the minors. By 2020, he was playing for the Sundbyberg Heat in Sweden (Swedish stats from 2010-2019 are no longer available online as of 1/17/24, so it is possible he had been playing there for years) - that season, he hit .367/.438/.481. He was 4th in hits (between Nicklas Melin and Leo Bäckström) and tied Alex Rubanowitz for 4th with six doubles.

In '21, he batted .382/.432/.647 for Sundbyberg. He tied Bäckström for 5th with 24 runs, tied Ben Johnson for 6th in hits (26), tied Ryan Arena for second with 9 doubles (2 behind Rubanowitz), tied for 4th in homers (3) and tied Johnson for 7th in total bases (44). As player-manager of the 2022 Heat, he produced at a .344/.470/.613 clip. He made leaderboards in runs (35, 4th), hits (32, tied for 9th), doubles (9, tied for 8th), triples (2, tied for 5th), dingers (4, tied for 2nd), RBI (30, 7th), total bases (57, 6th) and slugging (4th).

The veteran slipped a bit in 2023, hitting .278/.379/.454. He tied for 5th with 7 doubles and tied for 10th with 44 total bases. He was 7th with 13 steals, while being caught only once. The California native then made Sweden's team for the 2023 European Championship, starting in left for them. Batting second in their opener against Great Britain, he grounded out against Austin Hassani his first time up before doubling in the third. He had two of their three hits versus France in the 7th/8th place game (a loss for the Swedes), off Ben Couvreur and Nathan Laot. He finished the Euros at .261/.280/.478 with three steals in three tries and two triples in six games, fielding .889. He tied Martin Morua, Philip Smith and Leonel Sosa for the event lead in three-baggers and tied for fifth in swipes. He tied Oskar Jerfsten for the most total bases (11) on Sweden and tied Thomas Paulich for second on their team in steals.