Pirates may have new problem after Oneil Cruz fixes glaring flaw

For years, left-handed pitching was the riddle that Oneil Cruz couldn’t solve. It was the glaring flaw in an otherwise electric profile, the one weakness that allowed opponents to neutralize one of the most physically gifted players in baseball.

So this offseason, he went to work. He hired a left-handed BP pitcher. He rebuilt his approach. He committed to using the whole field.

And now? Problem solved. Maybe a little too solved.

Because while Cruz has turned his kryptonite into a superpower — torching left-handers to the tune of 7-for-11 with three home runs — a new concern is quietly emerging on the other side of the platoon split. Against right-handed pitching, Cruz looks… tentative. Overmatched at times. Almost like a hitter caught between two identities.

Through the first nine games, his line against righties tells the story: .179/.258/.286 with 12 strikeouts in 28 at-bats. Unfortunately, it's the kind of disconnect that can happen when a player makes a significant mechanical and philosophical adjustment.

Oneil Cruz may have overcorrected his biggest problem at the plate, but Pirates can still help him fix it

Cruz’s offseason focus was clear: stop trying to pull everything against lefties. Stay through the baseball. Use the middle of the field. Let his elite bat speed do the damage naturally. It’s a mature, sustainable approach — and it’s working beautifully against southpaws.

But hitting isn’t one-size-fits-all. The danger now is that Cruz’s “new” approach — one built on staying inside the ball and resisting the urge to pull — may be bleeding into his at-bats against right-handers, where his natural advantage should still lie. Against righties, Cruz should be hunting pitches he can turn on. He should be doing damage to the pull side. That’s where his power plays loudest.

Instead, he looks caught in between — not fully committing to the middle-of-the-field approach, but also not unleashing the aggressive, pull-side swing that made him so dangerous in the first place.

It’s the classic overcorrection trap. And for a player like Cruz, whose ceiling is tied to his ability to be a complete hitter rather than a matchup-dependent one, it matters.

The good news? This is a far better problem to have. The Pirates aren’t trying to fix a broken player anymore. They’re fine-tuning a dangerous one.

Cruz has already shown he can make meaningful adjustments — the kind that require humility and work. Now comes the next step: balance. The ability to tailor his approach not just to his weaknesses, but to each situation, each pitcher and each handedness.

That’s what separates tools from production. Because if Cruz can blend the two versions of himself — the disciplined, all-fields hitter he’s become against lefties and the explosive, pull-side force he’s always been against righties — the Pirates will finally have a legitimate superstar on their hands.