Pittsburgh Pirates: Prospects Set for an Extended Look in 2022

Shortstop Oneil Cruz

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Oneil Cruz back in the 2017 trade deadline for then rental reliever Tony Watson. At the time, Cruz was a very young, but high ceiling, recently signed international prospect back in 2017. But since then, he’s developed into one of the best-power potential prospects.

Cruz looked great at Double-A to start 2021. Through an injury-limited 273 plate appearance, he batted for a strong .292/.346/.536 line, blasted 12 long balls and had a fantastic .244 isolated slugging percentage. Cruz also had a strong .377 wOBA, and 136 wRC+. While he had average at best plate discipline (7.3% walk rate, 23.4% strikeout rate) his overall performance earned him a late-season call-up to Triple-A, and to say he got off to a hot start would be a massive understatement.

Cruz’s first 29 plate appearances at Indianapolis saw him collect 11 total hits, 5 of which were home runs (plus one double). He only struck out 5 times but drew ball four 8 times. Regardless of the small sample size, there’s no way you can’t be impressed by a 370 wRC+ and .762 isolated slugging percentage. This even earned him a call to the majors in the Pirates’ final two games of the season. He may have only had 9 plate appearances, but he made the best of them collecting 3 hits, including a home run and the 6th hardest-hit ball all season. His 118.2 MPH single in his debut game placed him in the top 99th percentile of max exit velocity.

Cruz can man shortstop given he’s more than fast enough to play the position. Plus he has good enough reflexes to play there as well. He also has the pure arm strength to make the deep throws. He has an 80-arm grade, making his arm one of the best in the sport. But he can get a little wild at times with most of the errors he has made being errant throws.

Still, as long as Cruz can show even half of the offensive potential he flashed at Triple-A and in his major league debut, he’ll be perfectly fine as an average defensive shortstop. I doubt the Pirates start Cruz in the major leagues next season. Not because of any service time reasons, but to get him at least a few more plate appearances at Triple-A.

After all, less than 50 seems like a bit too little to start giving him regular playing time in the majors. Though I’d expect him to be one of the Pirate line-up regulars by the start of May. He’s easily one of the Pittsburgh Pirates most exciting young prospects and he has power potential the organization hasn’t seen in a very long time.