BRADENTON, Fla. -- Oneil Cruz, the Pirates' most productive, most powerful prospect, will open the season in Class AAA Indianapolis, the team announced Tuesday afternoon, moments after a 6-2 victory over the Red Sox at LECOM Park.
Go ahead and throw stuff. There'll certainly be plenty of company in that regard.
And I get it. I swear I do. On one hand, this franchise tears down, builds back up and expects everyone to get excited about what's on the way. And on the other, just as that player's about to arrive ... the figurative rug gets yanked out.
I won't tell anyone else how to feel about it. But I did want to augment the main column for the day by sharing a few of my own thoughts on this:
• This is classic -- and glaringly obvious -- service-time manipulation. Derek Shelton wouldn't acknowledge that in meeting with us reporter types after the game, instead insisting it was for "developmental" reasons. (I'll get into that in a bit.) But that's what this is. That's all it is.
• Here's how that works: If a prospect's held down in the minors an extra couple weeks or so -- the exact time varies on a bunch of factors that even executives don't know as it's happening -- the team gains an extra full year of that player's rights. In Cruz's case, then, rather than being eligible for free agency following the 2027 season, that's now pushed back to 2028. It's an extra year of control.
• There's another benefit to the team in that, if the player's in the minors for a six or seven weeks -- here, too, exact time varies -- he can be prevented from attaining what's known as Super-2 status, which would allow an extra year of arbitration rights.
• The system sucks. Pardon the crude descriptor, but that's just about right. And it's sucked for a long time. It hurts players who are genuinely ready to strut their stuff at the top level, it hurts those players' earning power, it hurts teams that could use them on the roster and, not to be forgotten, it hurts the fans. The Major League Baseball Players Association tried to address it in the recent lockout, and it was barely touched.
• The only alteration: If a player finishes in the two top of his league's Rookie of the Year voting, the team loses that bonus year.
• Everyone does this. All 30 teams. The Blue Jays did it with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for crying out loud, even as he was raining moon shots all over Dunedin. The Cubs did it with Kris Bryant. Everyone, everyone, everyone does this.
• It really isn't much of a money thing. If anyone's in the mood to rip Bob Nutting, go nuts on the gross mishandling of Bryan Reynolds right now. But this ain't it. Again, everyone does this, and the Pirates would be dopes if they were the exception, since they have everything to gain from an extra year of Cruz.
• What would everyone rather have, a few weeks of Cruz right now amid what's sure to be another blah season, or a full year of him in his prime when the organization as a whole -- theoretically -- should be far stronger?
• Could/should the team focus instead on longer-term contracts for players such as Cruz?
Yep. But that's a different discussion and, as with all contracts, takes two to achieve. This service-time manipulation is solely up to the team. The contract isn't.
• Based on precedent, Cruz should be playing at PNC Park by the second or third week of May. The Pirates will be either in last place or ahead of only the Reds at that time. Same as they'd be if Cruz were here. Last I checked, he can't pitch, and this starting rotation's going to get rocked.
• I'm not about to insult anyone's intelligence and suggest Cruz isn't ready to contribute to this roster. He's heads and shoulders above almost everyone in this fold, and I'm not just saying that because he's 6-7. He's a big-time talent. And it'd be idiotic to debate whether or not he'd help more than Kevin Newman at shortstop or ... wow, whoever this team's going to stick in right field.
But I'm comfortable pointing out that Cruz has all of 29 plate appearances at the Class AAA level, plus the nine plate appearances he accumulated in the final weekend at PNC Park in 2021. That's 38 total since he graduated from Altoona. Barely a week's worth.
"I think it was a development decision," Shelton would say. "There’s still room for development, still things that we feel he can maximize on. We feel he’s going to have a major impact on the Pirates, but right now, we feel like there are things for him to do moving forward that are going to help us win games."
• Part of that, as I'd clarify with Shelton, is that Cruz will split time in Indianapolis between shortstop and the outfield, as management's been making clear for a while now:
"I think there’s development in that," he replied. "We need him to get out in the outfield a little more. He's not been out there very much. I think we’re talking about a young player who hasn’t spent a bunch of time over the Class AA level. There were some things that we specifically targeted to make sure that we continue to maximize how he’s going to help us."
Translation: They want him to play the outfield.
• But they just thought of this now?
• Why didn't Ben Cherington speak to this rather than Shelton?
The move's made by the front office, not by the field manager. So, being candid here, I almost felt awkward asking Shelton anything about it.
Cherington was in the facility, by the way. I'd seen him in an adjacent hallway two minutes before the team's announcement.
• Shelton did handle it well, though, including on the subject of how fans might react.
"I understand people are excited about him," he said. "We have a lot of guys in our minor leagues that I think our fanbase should be excited about. The fact that Oneil has been in spring training and he’s hit a couple balls hard and hit some homers, I understand their passion and appreciate that. I think what we have to make sure we do is put him in the best position moving forward to help us impact a lot of games, winning a lot of games in Pittsburgh and think about not only the short-term but the long-term, also."
• The root of the issue remains the system. I heard from an agent cutting up the Pirates for this, but when I asked what he, as an agent, had done to make this a key negotiating point for the MLBPA -- you know, the way Scott Boras was battling and winning such a point for Kumar Rocker, who isn't even in the minor leagues yet -- our communication fell silent.
Whatever. I've already gone on too long about a move that absolutely everyone down here -- Cruz included -- knew was coming. But again, I also appreciate that, when it hits back home, it can't come with all this context.
