Pittsburgh Pirates: Oneil Cruz Era Begins, Takeaways From Series Win

It’s Oneil Cruz’s world, now it’s time for us to live in it

Monday saw top Pirate prospect Oneil Cruz finally be promoted to the major leagues. Monday night he had a pair of hits including a double. He flashed elite sprint speed, more than once, and made a throw from shortstop to record an out that no other shortstop in baseball may be capable of making.

He continued to collect hits and drive in runs in games two and three. In game four he lined a double off the base of the center field wall, against a left-handed pitcher to boot, and made two more dazzling defensive plays. This including him going full extension, as you’ll see below, and him once again making a throw that no other shortstop in baseball may be capable of making.

Sadly, there are a lot of “fans” who will only point at Cruz failing to corral a ground ball in the 8th inning of game four which helped the Cubs score 5 runs in the inning with the Pirates leading 6-2. These same “fans” will also ignore that it was far from a routine play. But overall, it was a hell of a season debut series for Cruz.

Even most of the outs Cruz made were hit hard. Such as the 100.3 MPH missile he hit right at Cub third baseman Patrick Wisdom to end the bottom of the 8th inning in game four. By the end of his first game of the season he already had the hardest hit ball by a Pirate this season, the best sprint speed by a Pirate this season, and the hardest thrown ball by any MLB infielder this season. He also has at least 1 RBI in his first 6 career games, which is one game shy of tying the AL/NL record.

Cruz has all of the tools needed to be a special player and they were on full display this series. He’s going to make mistakes and have some learning curves, but buckle up and enjoy because the Pittsburgh Pirates have not had a player with this type of ceiling in a very long time.