Pittsburgh Pirates to Promote Oneil Cruz

Oct 2, 2021; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz (61) runs the bases on his way to scoring a run against the Cincinnati Reds during the fifth inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 2, 2021; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz (61) runs the bases on his way to scoring a run against the Cincinnati Reds during the fifth inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Pittsburgh Pirates are promoting their top prospect, Oneil Cruz, to the big league club

Late Sunday afternoon, news broke that Oneil Cruz would be getting the call to join the Pittsburgh Pirates. He spent the majority of his time playing for Triple-A Indianapolis this season. I personally got word close to the situation that Cruz would get the call, later Robert Murray would confirm the breaking news.

Cruz had some ups and down this season in the minor leagues.

In April, he slashed .176/.282/.284 with just 1 home run and looked out of sorts at the plate. However, he has been back to his original form. In June he slashed .277/.357/.489 and has seen the ball extremely well. We even started to see more pop in his bat. He ended up with 8 more home runs in  the months of May and June.

Defensively, he has struggled at the shortstop position. He has 14 errors so far this season at short and Ben Cherington most recently said they see him as a shortstop, so do not be surprised if there will be some growing pains for the young, but super talented prospect. If bat the plays, then fans should be able to handle his growth and development on the defensive side of the ball.

Last season, the Pittsburgh Pirates called up Cruz for 2 games in October. They rewarded him with the late call up last season because of his play. In September with Triple-A Indianapolis, Cruz slashed .524/.655/1.286 with 5 home runs in just 6 games.

Once called up to Pittsburgh, he had 3 hits in 9 at bats with a home run. He also hit one of the hardest balls recorded that year in the MLB on a line drive single. That was only 2 games and he made that much of an impact on this team. Now fans will get to see him in action for the rest of 2022.