Oneil Cruz's surprising ranking adds sting to Pirates' lost opportunity

As the MLB playoffs rage on, the Pittsburgh Pirates sit at home; and it's hard not to stop and think about what could have been. After an embarrassing 71-91 campaign last year, Pirates brass entered last offseason with a goal of snapping their playoff drought. To that end, the 2026 season was a failure.

Despite that, there are small moral victories. At 82-80, the team made an 11-game improvement and finished with a winning record for the first time since 2018. At the same time, that fact cuts like a knife. Injuries ravaged the lineup around midseason, creating quite a dip so that a 15-9 finish in September wasn't enough to lift Pittsburgh into the postseason.

The poster child for the role injuries played was Oneil Cruz. The formerly frustrating outfielder turned in a banner year and conquered one of his biggest weaknesses, improving dramatically against left-handed pitching. His impact was really felt as the Pirates went 27-32 while he was on the IL.

Cruz missed 61 games while on the IL with a fractured hand, but you wouldn't know that based on his ranking on the WAR leaderboards. With 3.3 WAR, the 28-year-old was ninth among all MLB center fielders, despite playing just 97 games.

The Pirates can't afford to backslide this offseason and must continue investing around Oneil Cruz

Cruz still has one area of opportunity that's holding him back from being a bona fide superstar and that's his defense. Cruz worked in the offseason with former Platinum Glove winner, Kevin Kiermaier, on his glove work in center. Kiermaier came away impresssed, but Cruz still put up -7 defensive runs saved over 756 1/3 innings in the field.

Regardless, we've now seen that Cruz could become the kind of offensive centerpiece Pittsburgh has long hoped he could be. It feels as though it's a given that he has a string of 30-30 seasons in him, as long as he stays healthy going forward.

That's big for the Pirates' hopes of building a contender, but it's not the only thing that the team can rely on. Pittsburgh is approaching a crucial offseason that will decide if it continues its ascent or if this rebuilding effort stalls out.

Brandon Lowe is a free agent, and his teammates have all but gotten on their hands and knees to beg Pirates brass to re-sign him this offseason. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees that the organization will go to the lengths it needs to in order to retain Lowe.

Zooming out, there's an even bigger question that must be answered. Last winter, Bob Nutting authorized a level of spending that has been unheard of in Pittsburgh. Now, the Pirates were still one of the lower-payroll teams in the league, but they were no longer a laughing stock. Will this trend continue?

There's reason to believe that last year was a one-time deal to take the heat off of Nutting and the penny-pinching franchise as the CBA expires on December 1. Upticks in spending among some of the bottom-feeder clubs happened around the league last offseason as they angle for a more restrictive labor agreement moving forward.

The Pirates need more than just Lowe to truly compete. The rotation could use reinforcements; they need a big right-handed bat, would be wise to upgrade the bench, and could possibly add another reliever or two. That all adds up.

Cruz staying healthy would have helped 2026's playoff push and will be critical for 2027, but it's not the only thing that the Pirates can cling to in order to contend moving forward. If they decide to bank on health and internal improvements in 2027, we're going to see the team stagnate. But if they continue to invest, we'll see Cruz serve as the engine that raises Pittsburgh to the league's upper echelon.

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