PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It seemed easy, Oneil Cruz is returning and the Pirates young shortstop would immediately provide power and production to the middle of the lineup. It appears that this starting to happen just as the Pirates needed an impact bat.
In his first game back from season-ending ankle surgery in early 2023, Cruz homered. In his first series back, the 25-year-old had five hits and scored four times. Two weeks into the season, Cruz was hitting .333 with five multi-hit games. The 17-homers and 34 extra base hits in 87 games in 2022 was showing up.
Turns out Cruz hadn’t figured everything out.
The left-handed hitting shortstop had only a pair of multi-hit games the rest of April, hitting just .222 with six RBIs the entire month. There were flashes in May with 14 extra base hits, more sporadic ones in June finishing with five homers and 16 RBI. Now in July, Cruz is a feared bat in the lineup. With 10 days to go in a month where the All-Star Game and a tight hamstring limited him to 50 at bats as of Monday, Cruz has 14 RBI with a .320 average. He drove in six runs against the best team in baseball over the weekend.
“Coming off the missed year of a really significant injury, we came into the year really trying just to let him be a baseball player again,” said Pirates GM Ben Cherington on 93.7 The Fan and the Pirates Radio Network. “We knew the first couple of months of the season likely would have ups-and-downs. The game is hard and he’s coming off a really serious injury and it’s not like he was a fully developed Major League player prior to the injury.”
Cherington said they felt in early May, Cruz was starting to turn the corner and the team got intentional with adding more to his plate. As Cherington explained it, they got intentional about helping him attack left-handed pitching and defense. The Bucs GM said they spent a lot of time in those areas. He credited his staff for not only challenging the shortstop, allowing him to understand the information provided.
“He wants to be great,” Cherington said on 93.7 The Fan and the Pirates Radio Network. “He wants to help us win games. He knew he had to do some things differently in order to do that. He went about that work.”
“It doesn’t just happen is the point. He’s worked on that to put himself in that position.”
Pitching depth
Cherington joked when asked about potentially having too many starting pitchers in the Pirates rotation, he would take that problem every day of every season. They expect to have Bailey Falter back soon, Jared Jones is throwing again (although he’s not expected back until some point in August), Quinn Priester is ready and after opting out of his contract, Domingo German has re-signed for potential veteran depth.
They also want to limit Paul Skenes to an unspecified number of innings in his rookie year. Would a six-man rotation allow him to finish the season? Cherington wasn’t asked that directly, but said about the rotation going forward.
“It’s a good situation to be in,” Cherington said on 93.7 The Fan and the Pirates Radio Network. “We’ll see how this plays out. There may be times we go with five starters, there may be times we go with six. We are getting to the point in the season where it will be the best five or six guys.”
“The team comes first and whoever we think will give us the best chance to win will get the ball.”
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