Pirates Move Oneil Cruz to a New Position
The Pittsburgh Pirates, while still mathematically in the wild card race, are in the season of trying things out. In today's pregame media availability, manager Derek Shelton told reporters that shortstop Oneil Cruz will start seeing time at a "new" position.
“I think as of right now, we’re looking at him as a center fielder,” Shelton said. “It’s something that we’ve been talking about. It’s not something that we took lightly. He’s an unbelievable athlete. We feel it’s probably the best position for him and for the Pirates. We wanted to make sure we got a runway of games going into next year for that to be important. Excited to see him out there. I mean, this kid’s a dynamic athlete and with the way that we’re set up now we feel like that’s the best thing for him.”
Shelton says the plan is to move Isiah Kiner-Falefa to short to give way to Gonzales at second, who is set to return from the injured list.
Cruz has played 202 of his 215 career MLB games at shortstop, 10 as a designated hitter, and just one in left field which occurred back in 2022, his first full year in the bigs. Playing the outfield isn't completely foreign to him though, having seen some action there in the minors including a stretch of games out there with Triple-A Indianapolis prior to his call-up.
Cruz's speed and strong arm should make for a good fit in the outfield and will likely cut down on the number of errors he commits. Currently, Cruz has the second-most errors in all of baseball (24), trailing only Cincinnati's Elly De La Cruz who has 26.
The move to center won't come right away according to Shelton. Instead, the tentative plan is for him to spend a few games at DH prior to the move.
