Pirates
Demilio: It Wasn’t Perfect, But Oneil Cruz Proved Me Wrong

I must admit, I didn’t have very high expectations for Oneil Cruz in center field after the Pittsburgh Pirates decided to move him from his natural shortstop position to the outfield.
Changing positions is never easy. Moving from the outfield to the infield or vice versa further complicates matters. Not to mention, Cruz had almost no time to prepare.
Prior to his position change, Cruz had logged one inning in the outfield in the big leagues in his career. He appeared in a game in left field during the 2022 season. Earlier that year, Cruz played 10 games in left with Triple-A Indianapolis. But that was it.
Manager Derek Shelton casually announced the decision on Aug. 26 during his typical pregame media availability prior to the Pirates’ matchup against the Chicago Cubs. Two days later in the series finale, Cruz trotted out to center field with a teal colored glove on his left hand, one that belonged to outfielder Michael A. Taylor.
In his first game at his new position, Cruz was tested right away. Cubs leadoff hitter Ian Happ doubled into the left-center gap. Cruz raced to retrieve the ball and delivered an accurate throw to the cutoff man.
Later in the game, Cruz was unfairly charged with a throwing error on a strong throw home. He delivered a one-hop strike to catcher Yasmani Grandal, who was unable to keep the ball in front of him which resulted in Cubs’ run. It’s a ball Grandal should have handled, but since the ball hit the dirt, the official scorer from that game put blame on the throw, which is often the case.
Cruz went on to play in 23 games games in center field for the Pirates this past season. The metrics? Not great. He totaled minus-three defensive runs saved and a minus-two UZR. He did, however, post two outs above average.
While there were some expected hiccups, I must say — the athletic Cruz passed the eye test.
Ben Cherington addressed Cruz’s showing in center field during his post-season media session on Wednesday. The Pirates’ general manager was encouraged.
“I would sum it up as that he absolutely showed us that he can do it, and that we should be confident that he can do it going into 2025,” Cherington explained. “That’s partly because of the metrics that we track. How we measure how he’s moving out there, which balls he’s getting to and how he’s getting to them.”
Cruz has the makings to be a quality center fielder. He has a strong arm and elite sprint speed that will surely continue to play well in the big outfield at PNC Park.
Of course, there is more that goes into playing the outfield than just those two elements. It takes instincts, communication, decision-making among other things.
Cherington feels some time to catch his breath will help Cruz improve across the board.
“As we all saw, there is more room to grow,” he said on Cruz. “Largely, I think that’s in how he’s using his arm as a weapon and how he’s just thinking about the role as a communicator. It’s sort of the two things we expected to take more time, when we did it. … So, we’ll have a full offseason and full spring training to work with him on that. I think he’s developed a good connection with (coach Tarrik Brock), and we’ll get together this offseason and keep working on it.”
The timing of the initial decision was surprising, as was Cruz’s performance, at least to me. But with the tools he already has as well as an entire offseason and spring training to fine tune his skillset, there’s no reason that Cruz shouldn’t be able to take a big step forward next season at his new position.