Pirates' Oneil Cruz is finally improving his main offensive weak spot

Oneil Cruz has become the subject of plenty of chatter and discourse in baseball circles, as it was announced on Monday that the Pirates' shortstop will begin what appears to be a permanent move to center field. It seems that his position in the field isn't the only facet of his game that has undergone a change.

Cruz is having a fine season at the plate, slashing .265/.323/.466 with 18 home runs while going 17-for-18 in stolen base attempts. That 114 wRC+ ranks eighth among shortstops and would rank sixth at his new position in center field. While his offensive ceiling is certainly much higher than that, he has responded well after losing nearly all of his age-24 season to injury.

But one part of Cruz's offensive profile that has seen some changes for the better is his ability to hit left-handed pitching. Cruz is notorious for his free-swinging approach that leads to MLB-best exit velocities, but also presents plenty of swing-and-miss, especially against southpaws. In his career, Cruz is batting .195/.247/.363 against lefties with 103 strikeouts against just 15 walks in 243 plate appearances.

The last few months, however, have gone much better. Since the calendar turned to June, Cruz has been one of the best in all of baseball in hitting lefty pitchers as a lefty hitter. During that span, he is slashing .328/.350/.621, with that .971 OPS better than every left-handed hitter with at least 60 plate appearances not named Yordan Álvarez, Juan Soto, or Bryce Harper. He has also lowered the strikeout rate to a much more manageable 28.3% and recorded 10 extra-base hits after hitting only nine in his entire career up to that point.

For reference, from his MLB debut through the end of play on May 31 of this season, his career slash against southpaws was .149/.213/.274, and an abysmal 47% of his plate appearances vs. left-handers ended in a strikeout. There were exactly 100 other left-handed hitters with at least 100 plate appearances against lefties in that span - only four of them had an OPS lower than Cruz's .487, and nobody managed to match his strikeout rate.

Cruz's main issue against left-handed pitching has been his pitch selection. He has constantly been fed a steady dose of breaking balls and often chases them. In other situations, he will be wary of the breaking ball and end up watching hittable fastballs for strikes. While being aggressive on pitches in the strike zone may seem like overly basic advice, Cruz has started doing that and it is paying off.

From March through May, Cruz swung at 58.3% of pitches in the strike zone from left-handed pitchers. Since June, that figure has increased to 70.5%. And he's not just swinging at more strikes, he's actually doing damage. Since June, when Cruz ends a plate appearance by swinging at a strike against a lefty, he's hitting .350 and slugging .625.

While it is unrealistic to expect Cruz to rake at that kind of level against left-handers consistently, it is encouraging to see that he has been able to make an adjustment, and that it has led to positive results. If he's even a .700 OPS hitter against lefties moving forward, that makes him an even more imposing offensive threat (.833 OPS against right-handers this year, .834 in his career).

Oneil Cruz has a lot of work to do as he transitions from a shortstop to a center fielder.

While he dedicates much of his time and energy to learning a new position, it will be critical to see if he is able to keep things going offensively, including the strides he has made against left-handed pitching.

Tuesday night against Justin Steele and the Cubs could be another pertinent test as he continues to progress.