Oneil Cruz milestone is a reminder Pirates have barely seen his ceiling

Oneil Cruz lost more than two months of his season to the injured list and still managed to put himself in the same sentence as Barry Bonds and Andrew McCutchen. That should tell the Pittsburgh Pirates everything they need to know about just how much upside remains.

With his solo home run off Michael Wacha on Sunday against the Kansas City Royals, Cruz reached 20 homers for the season and became just the third player in franchise history to record at least 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in three consecutive years.

Bonds did it. McCutchen did it. Now Cruz has, too. But unlike a milestone that feels like the culmination of a player’s greatness, this one feels more like another glimpse at what Pittsburgh still hasn’t fully gotten to see.

Oneil Cruz gave Pirates another glimpse of what a healthy season could bring with third straight 20-20 season

Cruz missed more than two months on the injured list this season, yet still managed to reach 20 home runs and 20 steals. That makes the accomplishment less a reflection of his ceiling than a reminder of how high that ceiling might actually be.

That has always been the fascination with Cruz. At 6-foot-7 with some of the loudest raw tools in baseball, there has never been much mystery about what he is capable of physically. Few players can hit a baseball as hard, throw it as hard or move as well at his size. The question has always been whether those tools could consistently translate into star-level production over the course of a full season.

Unfortunately, that full season remains elusive. Injuries have interrupted Cruz repeatedly, including again in 2026. Yet even without the benefit of a complete year, he continues to pile up accomplishments that put him in franchise company with players who defined entire eras of Pirates baseball. That should leave Pittsburgh wondering what a healthy Cruz season could actually look like.

Thirty home runs? Thirty stolen bases? More? None of those possibilities feel especially far-fetched considering he reached 20-20 this year despite losing such a significant chunk of the schedule.

There are still parts of Cruz’s game that can improve. His swing-and-miss tendencies can become frustrating, and his offensive production has occasionally come in streaks. But the Pirates don't need to imagine what happens if Cruz suddenly becomes a completely different player. They simply need to see what happens if the version they already have stays on the field long enough.

For a Pirates team that is going to miss the postseason despite taking a legitimate step forward offensively, Cruz remains one of the biggest reasons to believe there is another level available in 2027. Three straight 20-20 seasons already place him next to Bonds and McCutchen, but it still feels like Cruz is only beginning to show what he can become..

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