Pirates' Derek Shelton Pleased With Oneil Cruz's Defense
With the Pittsburgh Pirates' playoff hopes all but dwindled away, they were faced with a decision on Oneil Cruz's future at shortstop and whether it was time for a new start at a different position.
Ultimately, manager Derek Shelton and the rest of the Pirates brass decided to shift Cruz to center field for the final month of the season. That move paid dividends for Pittsburgh in September and left Shelton impressed with what he saw from the 6-foot-7 center fielder.
"We wanted to do it during the season because of the fact we wanted 30 major league games," Shelton said on MLB Network. "We didn't want to do it in winter ball. We didn't want to do it in drills. Metrically, it showed up better than we thought. We've taken a premier, elite athlete, and there's a bunch of open space at PNC [Park] and said go catch the ball. He made a couple plays that we were like, whoa, that was easy just getting after the ball. He's just now learning the reads and breaks, but he's such a good athlete that it transitioned really nicely."
Booted up the work laptop on my last off-day of the season to see what the catch probability on this Oneil Cruz diving grab was.
— Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) September 19, 2024
20%. His first five-star play in center. pic.twitter.com/kNLCaPoCYv
Cruz, 26, played in 23 games in center field and made just two errors for Pittsburgh. Those numbers were a stark contrast to his defensive play at shortstop, where he posted 24 errors in 112 games, which was the second-most in baseball before he made the position change.
Cruz also saw a significant improvement in his outs above average and fielding run value by FanGraphs' metrics. He posted a -3 OAA and -2 FRV at shortstop but had a 2 OAA and 1 FRV across his 23 games in center field.
With a 23-game sample in center field under Cruz's belt, there's plenty of reason for optimism given how he played after making the abrupt position change. With a full offseason now to prepare to hold down the new position, it's not far-fetched to believe he can build on his performance and cement himself as the Pirates' center fielder for the foreseeable future.
