Pittsburgh Pirates: Oneil Cruz Quickly Makes MLB Impact

The Pittsburgh Pirates promoted slugging shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz to the Majors for final two games of the regular season and he quickly made an impact

The future of the Pittsburgh Pirates is as bright as the sun. That tends to be the case for team’s that have a top 5 farm system in baseball after all. While the 2021 season saw the Pirates finish with a 61-101 record fans did start to get a flash into what the future can hold.

While he took some lumps offensively, some of which can be contributed to multiple hand injuries, Ke’Bryan Hayes flashed his elite defensive prowess that can make him the best defensive third baseman in baseball. Bryan Reynolds proved his 2020 struggles were a fluke as he was one of the best players in baseball, David Bednar looks like a long-term answer as a dominant arm at the back-end of the bullpen and Roansy Contreras flashed his ace potential in his lone start as a September call up.

Another highly touted prospect who made their MLB debut as a September call up with the Pittsburgh Pirates this season was shortstop Oneil Cruz. The left-handed hitting slugger has as high a ceiling as a power hitter as any prospect in baseball and Cruz quickly turned heads in his tow games with the Pirates at the season’s end.

Cruz was promoted to Pittsburgh to make his MLB debut on Saturday night. In the 6-3 Pirate victory Cruz was 2-for-5 a the plate. These hits included a ground ball single into right field for his first career hit and RBI, as well as a 118.2 MPH missile for his second hit.

Sunday afternoon the Pittsburgh Pirates finished their 2021 campaign by suffering a 6-3 loss against the Reds but Cruz still won the day. Cruz entered the 9th inning 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts on the day but that was about to change.

Cruz launched a Michael Givens fastball 408 feet. The ball landed deep in the right-center field seats for a 2-run blast, giving Cruz his first career home run and giving Pirate fans one last thing to cheer about this season.

Cruz finished his September cup of coffee in the Majors 3-for-9 with a home run and 3 RBI.

Seeing Cruz get an opportunity in the Majors in the final series of the season was great to see and will only prove to be beneficial for Cruz. Cruz having success at the plate while doing so is an even bigger plus. While Cruz is likely to begin the 2022 season with Triple-A Indianapolis, he should be back in Pittsburgh by June 2022 at the latest and he’s already proven he can make an impact against MLB pitching.