Latest Pittsburgh Pirates Center fielder, 6-foot-7 O'Neill Cruz, who was a shortstop until 72 hours ago, but I think I've met him before.
The Pirates made one of their most sudden moves of the 2024 season on Monday, when manager Derek Shelton formally announced to the media that “at this point, we're looking at him as a center fielder.” The Pirates are committed to Cruz mastering center field and becoming an outfielder. He's quit playing shortstop. The experiment is over.
Just eight days ago, the Pirates were adamant that Cruz be their starting player at one of the most important positions in the sport. A week later, things have completely changed. So what happened?
Cruz has committed 24 errors in 112 games, second-worst in all of baseball. Cincinnati Reds Shortstop Ellie de la Cruz (26). Her .939 fielding percentage was fourth-worst among qualified fielders.
There's no denying that playing shortstop is a tough task for a player who stands 6-foot-7. That didn't work in his favor last season, when he played just nine games before undergoing ankle surgery to end the season.
That all changed when Cruz nearly collided with Houston left fielder Bryan Reynolds as he ran about 100 feet from shortstop to catch a fly ball down the left field line. Cruz made three errors that day. The Pirates were leading 4-0 and on their way to a sweep of a powerhouse team. Astros The game was played away from home and they lost 5-4.
Since then, the Pirates have gone 7-18.
Cruz, 25, is described by many as a unicorn athlete with a physique that has the potential for five tools. He is the tallest shortstop in baseball history and regularly launches throws to first base at over 100 mph. Perhaps this is what has kept him out of the position, often putting Rowdy Telles and Connor Joe in tough positions to pick up his errant throws. Sometimes things just don't go his way.
So, is it the right choice? There's no denying that Cruz's offensive potential is a big plus for the shortstop.
Cruz is on base in 20 straight games and is batting .370 (27 for 73) with eight doubles, one home run and nine RBIs. His .384 average in August is second only to Aaron Judge (.413), the best-performing player in baseball on the planet and in hot spurts to break the AL home run record.
He's batting .429 with four stolen bases over his last four games. This season, Cruz is batting .273 with a .300 on-base percentage, a .475 slugging percentage, 31 doubles, 18 homers, 65 RBIs and an .805 OPS. At a position that has historically been weak in offensive power, any increase in offensive power is a big plus. The same can be said for center field. The Pirates haven't had a center fielder since Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte.
The harsh reality was that Cruz's defense was so untenable that the Pirates could not continue to believe that Cruz could fix things on the left side of the infield. On August 18, general manager Ben Cherington confidently stated that O'Neill Cruz was their shortstop. Eight days later, the Pirates were only looking at Cruz as an outfielder, specifically as a center fielder rather than a corner.
So what changed? We asked Derek Shelton, who pointed to the internal discussions that led to the decision, which he said he ultimately shared with Cruz a few days ago.
The Pirates' bold move to acquire O'Neill Cruz means two things.
1. When they acquired Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, the intention was to use him as an everyday shortstop.
2. They don't believe they're still in playoff contention, and if they were, they wouldn't be attempting such a big move.
This whole process is weird and makes no sense. The Pirates said they were easing Cruz into the center field position and giving him time to adjust. He played as the designated hitter on Monday and Tuesday but made his first start in center field on Wednesday, two days after the decision was made official.
Shelton and the Pirates want to see how Cruz performs in a game before deciding what to do next. He wouldn't do this if he still believed the Pirates could make the playoffs. An experiment this extreme only applies after waving the white flag. Chicago Cubs They gave up 41 runs in three games. Mitch Keller, Jared Jones and Paul Skenes started all three games. The Pirates blew a 10-3 lead going into the seventh inning on Wednesday for their worst loss of the season. It was a complete disaster.
So maybe now is the perfect time to try Cruz out at a new position, wait until the end of the season (with only 30 games remaining) and work with him through the offseason and spring training so he'd be ready to take on the spacious outfield at PNC Park on Opening Day in 2025. Instead, Cruz made his first start on Wednesday after just one day of pregame practice.
Cruz's first throw to home plate on a hard play at home plate was the strongest throw by a Pirates outfielder in 2024 and the second-strongest throw by an outfielder in baseball this season. Catcher Yasmani Grandal was called for an error for failing to catch the first-bounce ball to home plate, but it was not Cruz's fault that the ball reached the backstop on the play at home plate.
“He did a good job,” Shelton said after Wednesday's game. “He threw the ball to the right. It was a good throw to home plate. He's going to have to learn how to make a long hop. Other times he's thrown it to the right. He did a good job.”
Cruz has performed better than expected in his first start. It's the right decision for the future, but inconsistent for now. Cruz will make mistakes. There will be growing pains. The Pirates know that and have said so. But that doesn't excuse the fact that this sudden, abrupt decision sealed another lost season of sub-.500 baseball.
Could Cruz be the next Omar Moreno? A 6-foot-2 center fielder and left-handed hitter, Moreno is one of the tallest center fielders in Pirates history and was a key player on the 1979 World Series team. Cruz may best be compared to Jazz Chisholm, who started as an infielder, moved to center field and was the cover athlete for MLB The Show video game before being traded back to the infield. New York Yankees At the trade deadline.
Either way, O'Neill Cruz is one of the most important players in the Pirates organization. The Pirates have failed in developing him into a good defensive shortstop. If the Pirates can't develop their living unicorn into a star outfielder, we'll see more significant changes on the North Shore than Cruz moving to another position.
