Pirates have to live with Oneil Cruz’s most frustrating flaw for now

It's not difficult to argue that Oneil Cruz is having the best offensive season of his career for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2026. Entering Saturday, Cruz's .784 OPS is better than his career-best .773 mark from 2024. He's also on pace to hit 35 home runs, which would easily surpass his previous career high of 21 and put him among the more productive power hitters in the National League.

With the help of Pirates hitting coach Matt Hague, Cruz has adopted a simpler approach at the plate this season, and it's paid off. Cruz is also stealing bases at a higher rate than ever before (17 so far this season, with his career-best being 38 in 2025), and it's placed him in rarefied company with Barry Bonds in Pirates history.

Oneil Cruz's strikeouts problem is notable, but not enough for Pirates to bench him

Despite his really nice year thus far, Cruz is not without his flaws at the plate. His enduring strikeout problem stands out in that regard.

Cruz worked hard over the offseason to improve his two-strike approach, and while there were signs of progress earlier in the season, they've since worn off a bit. Cruz has been taking a lot of called third strikes recently, even pitches down the middle.

Cruz's 89 strikeouts entering Saturday put him on pace to break the single-season MLB record. But ultimately, this is just something the Pirates are going to have to live with, especially with Cruz providing so much pop in the lineup and still batting above .250.

It's a stark contrast to last season, when Cruz batted .200 and gave the Pirates reason to bench him (he still played 135 games) due to all of the strikeouts. That's not the case this year, as noted by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Colin Beazley this week.

"The strikeouts are worth living with when Cruz is hitting .250-plus with power, less so when he's around .200," Beazley wrote. "The Pirates will live with the strikeouts when Cruz is [hitting for average and power], like he is. For Cruz, it’s all a matter of minimizing his cold streaks."

At 27 years old, Cruz is entering his athletic prime and still has a ton of time left in his career to hone his skills and minimize the strikeout problem. He'll only become a more valuable bat for the Pirates once he does. But for now, Pittsburgh has to be happy about the steps Cruz has taken in 2026.

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