Oneil Cruz's defensive struggles becoming too damaging for Pirates to ignore

Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz is a formidable force at the plate. His raw power is unrivaled, and he still owns the hardest-hit ball in the Statcast era with a 122.4 mph exit velocity. In the field, however ... yikes.

Cruz has a cannon for an arm, and he knows it. When he fields a grounder at short, he almost appears to pause an extra second or two for dramatic effect before throwing to first so he can show off his velocity as he guns the runner down. He goes for flash over accuracy, and the results are exactly what you would expect: costly misplays and overthrows that often lead to unearned runs.

Take last Wednesday's game against the Houston Astros, for example. Cruz racked up three fielding errors in the 5-4 Pirates loss, including two on the same play. His miscues resulted in three unearned runs in a contest that was decided by just one run; in other words, he singlehandedly cost Pittsburgh the game.

Cruz (somewhat) redeemed himself two days later, when he went 5-for-5 at the plate against the Arizona Diamondbacks, scoring twice and driving in two runs in what would be a 9-8 Pirates loss. He didn’t escape the night without an error, though; it didn't lead to any runs, thankfully, but it was his 21st of the season, which at the time was tied for the MLB lead.

Late in Thursday afternoon's game against the Padres, Cruz fired a ball to first that he should've held onto. The errant throw allowed the tiebreaking run to score in the ninth, and marked his 22nd error of the season. He has now committed the most errors of any shortstop, tied with Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz.

Pirates can't ignore Oneil Cruz's defensive struggles despite offensive prowess

Cruz sat out of the Pirates' lineup for Tuesday's series opener against the San Diego Padres after a stretch of 17 straight starts, during which he had a .290/.333/.551 slash line with seven doubles, three homers, four steals, 15 RBI and 11 runs. Isiah Kiner-Falefa shifted to shortstop while Jared Triolo started at second base.

As the Pirates continue to push themselves into the postseason conversation in the middle of a crowded National League wild card race, the margins for error are razor-thin. They need Cruz's bat in the lineup if they're hoping for a miracle playoff run, but not at the cost of his myriad defensive gaffes.

If Cruz continues like this, he's playing a zero-sum game. He is one of Pittsburgh's greatest offensive weapons, but as long as the Pirates keep him at shortstop, he's hurting more than he helps.

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