8-27-24 – By Ethan Smith – @mvp_EtHan on X
The Pittsburgh Pirates hit us with massive news before yesterday’s series opener versus the Chicago Cubs, announcing Oneil Cruz would be making a permanent move from the shortstop position to center field.
Immediately, the announcement sent shockwaves through the organization, because as fans, it’s a move that many have teased as a possibility at some point, but to see it actually happen was, in all honesty, shocking.
Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton spoke on the move yesterday after Shelton broke the news to reporters.
With everything said, done and announced, it took me some time to digest everything and formulate an opinion and a reaction to the decision, and right now, the impact this has on Cruz himself and the team is very interesting to say the least.
For Cruz himself, this is a drastic change. We have seen success stories before from other players making the transition from shortstop, or the infield overall, to the outfield, most recently Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill and Mookie Betts, who have all shown they can be successful defensively in the outfield.
Despite the success stories, Cruz is none of those players, he’s his own, unique blend of athleticism, speed and power, and a move like can have both positive and negative impacts.
Initially, there will, without a doubt, be growing pains for Cruz in center field, purely because he has to learn tracking the ball off the bat, the semantics of managed his left fielder and right fielder as far as positioning, and his decision making when throwing from the outfield to hold runners.
Those of course, are mostly mechanical, and Cruz showed a willingness to improve mechanically at shortstop, but it seemed as if the position was never going to workout for him. His -3 OAA and the number of errors was always alarming, especially when it began to cost the Pirates games at times, with many other factors at play of course, so mechanics will be the first step in the process.
The process continues with him finding comfort in the position, and although, as reported, it seems he is unhappy with the move, I am sure he’ll embrace it eventually for the betterment of team success, more on that later.
Once Cruz cruises through those barriers, the impact he can have at the position is limitless, seeing as he ranks as one of the fastest runners in baseball(87th percentile) and arm strength(99th percentile), so the tools are already there, it will just be a matter of a learning curve and implementation of what he learns at the position.
On top of all this, Cruz did play 80 innings in the outfield with AAA-Indianapolis in 2022, so he has limited experience, but its experience either way. The key word for this is patience, because Cruz won’t magically figure out the position overnight, no matter how much we all wished it worked that way.
It is going to take time, and when you have an opportunity, which you do now, to get experience for Cruz at the position in games that matter, especially before next season arrives, then you take it, but this move has more impacts across the organization as well, not just Cruz.
For starters, as far as the team construction goes, Cruz has been considered, as he should be, a pillar of what the Pirates have been trying to build over the past few years. So a move to a new position would signal that the Pirates plan on Cruz being the future of the center field position, which in many ways helps this team when you break it down.
The needs of this team have been clear for awhile, they’ve needed a strong, center fielder that can hit and be adequate enough defensively for it not to be a problem, they’ve needed someone to take over the first base position, the catcher position, and even the corner outfield, minus Reynolds, at times.
So, with a positive mindset here, let us imagine Cruz’s transition is smooth, his bat doesn’t take a negative hit offensively and he is sound, enough, defensively to work in the outfield. That would fix a ton of problems the Pirates currently have, as they’ve been searching for offensive production from the outfield from someone other than Reynolds, and Cruz should be able to do that.
As mentioned earlier, the biggest questions come defensively, so being optimistic again, if Cruz is middle-of-the-road defensively, you no doubt walk out of this situation happy, as a fan and the organization itself.
As far as how this impacts other needs, you have enough as a team you like in the middle infield for there not to be a massive hole at either shortstop or second base, with Isiah Kiner-Falefa and the return of Nick Gonzales solidifying those spots. You also have contributors in Jared Triolo, Ji-Hwan Bae(if you want) and Alika Williams who can help if need be for the remainder of 2024.
Even entering 2025, I think you feel confident with IKF and Gonzales up the middle defensively, and offensively, so this move, in theory, has limited the amount of what Pittsburgh has to fix, but it has also raised even more questions about Cruz’s defense that the Pirates had hoped to answer last year before his injury, but were unable to do so.
Now, the Pirates have seen a full season worth of defense from Cruz at shortstop and didn’t like what they saw, and the move to center field features excitement, questions, anxiousness and at the end of the day, curiosity, because I am curious to see how this plays out for Cruz and the team.
The move appears permanent, so it isn’t reversible, and with the potential risks and rewards, this situation won’t have a “resolution” in 2024, maybe not even fully in 2025, but watch it play out how its intended to, remain open-minded, have patience and if anything, imagine if Cruz does figure it out and become a top center fielder in baseball?
The next time Oneil Cruz enters the field of play defensively, he’ll be a center fielder, man, that’s going to take some time to get used to, but, again, the upside here is massive, and if it works out, the team, and Cruz, will benefit.
Steel City Pirates 
As much as I agree with pretty much all of this and appreciate it, I can’t help expecting it will take some kind of Pirates turn. In this case I will guess an IKF injury forces them to play Cruz at SS more in 2025 because their hopes of backup plans (see: Peguero, Liover) go up in smoke and they didn’t acquire adequate depth in the offseason.
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