Why the Pirates made the right decision moving Oneil Cruz to center field at a curious time

The Pirates finally pulled the plug on playing Oneil Cruz at shortstop shifting the uber-talented player to the outfield.

Introducing your newest Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder, 6-foot-7 Oneil Cruz. I think we’ve met before, albeit you were a shortstop as of 72 hours ago.

The Pirates made one of the most abrupt moves of the 2024 season on Monday when manager Derek Shelton formally announced to the media, “I think as of right now, we’re looking at him (Cruz) as a center fielder.” The Pirates are committed to Cruz learning center field and becoming an outfielder. He’s done playing shortstop. The experiment is over.

Just eight days prior, the Pirates were adamant Cruz was their everyday guy at one of the sport’s most important positions. Things changed a week later. So what happened?

Cruz owns 24 errors in 112 games, second worst in all of baseball behind Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz (26). His .939 fielding percentage ranks fourth worst among qualified fielders.

There’s no denying the daunting task of playing short when you’re 6-foot-7. Coming off of season-ending ankle surgery after only nine games last season hasn’t played in his favor. Nor does his inconsistency

When Cruz nearly collided with left fielder Bryan Reynolds in Houston on a play where he traveled about 100 feet from short to try and catch a fly ball near the line in left, everything changed. Cruz committed three errors that day. A 4-0 Pirates lead, looking to sweep the mighty Astros on the road, evaporated into a 5-4 loss.

The Pirates are 7-18 since.

Cruz, 25, is defined by many as a unicorn of an athlete and holds five-tool potential in his frame. He’s the tallest shortstop in baseball history. He uncorks over 100 mph throws to first base on a regular basis. It’s probably a factor in why he was moved from the position and often put Rowdy Tellez and/or Connor Joe in a difficult position to pick his errant throws. Sometimes things don’t work out.

So, is it the right move? There’s no denying Cruz’s offensive potential is a significant plus at shortstop.

Cruz owns a 20-game on-base streak that includes a .370 average (27 for 73), eight doubles, one home run, and 9 RBIs. His .384 batting average in August is second to the hottest baseball player on the planet and a guy looking to break his own American League home run record in Aaron Judge (.413).

He’s hitting .429 in his last four games and has stolen four bases. On the season, Cruz owns a .273/.300/.475 slash line with 31 doubles, 18 home runs, 65 RBIs, and a .805 OPS. The offensive upside is a significant plus at a historically weak offensive position. A similar statement can be said for center field, where the Pirates haven’t seen any production since Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte.

The harsh reality is Cruz’s defense was too unbearable for the Pirates to continue down the path of believing Cruz can figure things out on the left side of the infield. On August 18, general manager Ben Cherington confidently stated that Oneil Cruz was their shortstop. Eight days later, the Pirates only view Cruz as an outfielder, specifically in center field rather than a corner.

So what changed? When I asked Derek Shelton, he mentioned internal conversations that went into the decision and ultimately informed Cruz in the past few days.

The Pirates making this drastic move with Oneil Cruz means two things:

1. When they acquired Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, it was with the intention of him being the everyday shortstop.

2. They don’t believe they’re still in a playoff race. If so, this big of a move wouldn’t be experimented with.

The whole process is odd and doesn’t make sense. The Pirates proclaimed they were going to ease Cruz into the position and give him time to get comfortable. He DH’d on Monday and Tuesday but started in center for the first time on Wednesday, two days after the decision was formally made.

Shelton and the Pirates want to see Cruz perform in game action to determine what to do with him moving forward. They wouldn’t be doing this if they still believed the Pirates could reach the playoffs. An experiment as extreme as this only applies after waiving the white flag. It’s hard to think otherwise after being swept by the Chicago Cubs and allowing 41 runs in three games. By the way, Mitch Keller, Jared Jones, and Paul Skenes started the three matchups. The Pirates blew a 10-3 lead from the 7th inning on Wednesday, which was arguably the worst loss of the season. This is a complete disaster.

So, maybe it’s the perfect time to experiment with Cruz in a new position. I would have rather waited until the end of the season - there are only 30 games left - and worked with Cruz throughout the offseason and spring training to be ready for opening day 2025 in PNC Park’s spacious outfield. Instead, Cruz made his first start on Wednesday after only one day of prior pregame practice.

In his first throw home on a bang-bang play at the plate, Cruz deposited the hardest throw by a Pirates outfielder in 2024 and the second-hardest throw of any outfielder in baseball this season. He was charged an error after catcher Yasmani Grandal couldn’t pick a one-hopper home, but it wasn’t Cruz’s fault the ball got to the backstop on a play at the plate.

“He did a good job,” Shelton said after the game Wednesday. “He threw the ball to the right base. Made a good throw to the plate. He’s going to have to learn how to long-hop. The other times, he threw to the right base. He did a nice job.”

Cruz did better than I expected for his first time out there. It’s the right move for the future, but a conflicting one in the present. Cruz is going to make mistakes. There will be growing pains. The Pirates know that and even express it. That doesn’t excuse the fact that this sudden and abrupt move solidifies another lost season of under-.500 baseball.

Could Cruz become the next Omar Moreno? A 6-foot-2 center fielder who also hit from the left side, Moreno is one of the taller center fielders in Pirates history and was a key clog of the 1979 World Series team. Jazz Chisholm might be the best comparison for Cruz. Chisholm started as an infielder, moved to center field, became an MLB The Show video-game cover athlete, and then moved back to the infield after being traded to the New York Yankees at the trade deadline.

Regardless, Oneil Cruz is one of the most important players in the Pirates organization. They messed up developing him to become a good defensive shortstop. If they can’t turn their living unicorn into a star in the outfield, more significant changes will come to the North Shore than Cruz moving to a different position.