Oneil Cruz is the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Greatest Enigma

So far this season, things have gone quite differently than the Pittsburgh Pirates had hoped. Their bullpen virtually collapsed in the first series of the year, their offense hasn’t been consistently productive, and they just haven’t played sound, fundamental baseball all year long.

Amidst these struggles, Oneil Cruz has been a very polarizing and fascinating player. He’s done well offensively, and he’s delivered yet again on the base paths. The one area where Cruz hasn’t met expectations, however, is his defense.

2025 will be the first full season Cruz has spent as a centerfielder, with his transition officially taking place last August. He’s been amongst the bottom of all defenders this season in OAA as well as his arm value, two areas many people expected to see Cruz succeed in.

These question marks, alongside his offensive successes, have raised the question: What do the Pirates do with Cruz moving forward? Do they try another position? Does he just need more reps in center field? It’s a tricky problem to address, making him the team’s greatest enigma.

Cruz’s Early Offensive Successes

As I previously mentioned, the 2025 season has already showcased some tremendous successes for Cruz. Although it’s a sample size of just 12 games, his production has been one of the few bright spots for a Pirates offense that currently boasts a team wRC+ of just 70.

Through this span, Cruz has slashed .211/.360/.395 with two homers, a 104 wRC+, and an astounding walk rate of 18%. Although it’s an incredibly small sample size, Cruz is showing a revitalized version of his game offensively, one that better suits both him and the Pirates as a whole.

For starters, I don’t think his improvements in his eye are due to a small sample size, as Cruz appears to be displaying a far more passive version of himself than what we’ve seen previously. One place this shines through is in his chase rate, which has improved by 1.9%, a noticeable change when looking at his numbers.

Granted, a 10.5% increase in his walk rate is likely unsustainable, but this passiveness is really encouraging. Not only has his chase rate improved, but his strikeout rate and whiff rate have seen massive improvements. He’s seen an improvement of around 9% in both of these areas, which is going to be a huge factor in Cruz growing as a big-leaguer.

While he’s swinging less overall, he’s still doing damage when it matters as well. Cruz’s swing percentage declined by 7%, while his zone contact rate improved by over 10%.

Cruz has done all of this and more while still maintaining his elite batted ball metrics, which complete him as a hitter. For example, his launch angle sweet spot percentage currently sits at nearly 54%, a very impressive mark. His exit velocities and barrels have dipped slightly, but he has still been fairly elite in both areas.

He does still have a way to go as a big-league hitter, though. Even though he’s made improvements to his aggression at the dish, he still chases and expands the zone more than we’d like to see. However, if this trend of improvements continues, this should only get better with time.

Some of these changes may be due to his small sample size, but the new offensive player we’ve seen Cruz become this year is super encouraging. As the season goes on and he heats up even more, don’t be surprised if he finishes the season as a top-10 offensive center fielder.

Success on the Base Paths

Another interesting part of Cruz’s game that he’s showcasing early this season is his speed on the base paths. Cruz has always possessed elite speed, but this season, he’s putting it to use more than past seasons.

Through his 12 games so far, Cruz has stolen seven bases, meaning he’s on pace to steal more than 100 bases if this trend continues. While this number seems unrealistic, and a product of the small sample size, this shouldn’t discredit just how much Cruz has been running this year.

This has likely also been a part of the Pirates’ aggressive approach to stolen bases as a whole. The Bucs are second in the majors tied with 21 stolen bases as a team, four bags behind the Chicago Cubs.

Even if Cruz doesn’t reach that outlandish figure of over 100 stolen bases, we’ve seen multiple players either eclipse the 70 stolen base mark or come close to reaching it in recent seasons. If Cruz remains aggressive on the bases, we could see him finally channel this speed into impressive numbers.

Cruz’s Defensive Woes: What’s the Issue?

Although he’s seemingly become a whole new offensive player, the same cannot be said about Cruz’s defensive abilities in center field. Back in January, I wrote a story on his shift to center field and how I was hopeful that the position change would bring out a much better defensive player, but, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

The Pirates shared a similar sentiment, hoping that his elite speed in center field could give him the ability to track balls down deep in the gap, limiting extra-base hits that may have previously dropped.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be translating as expected in 2025. Cruz’s range of -1 has near the bottom of the league-wide leaderboards, highlighting his struggles in this area.

When watching Cruz play the outfield, he sometimes appears to lack the hustle needed to play an elite center field, which could be a huge contributor to why his range hasn’t translated as well as expected.

Cruz’s OAA has told a similar story, registering him as a negative fielder once again. Although it was a smaller sample size, Cruz’s OAA in centerfield last season of 2 is far different than his -1 OAA so far in 2025.

Cruz hasn’t displayed a quick reaction to the ball in center field, registering negative outfield jumps and reactions so far in 2025. Since center field is a position where a quick reaction is needed to run the most efficient routes to the ball, this is quite alarming.

While these numbers have been far from spectacular so far this year, it is important to note that Cruz is still relatively new to the position and may still be in the process of correctly adjusting. For any player, a position change can be jarring, but especially for a shortstop moving to center field, this can take some time.

However, as I mentioned earlier, Cruz hasn’t displayed a tremendous amount of effort at times in center field, which has become rather costly for the Pirates. If this continues, he may never fully develop as a center fielder.