While detailing the Pirates' plans as to how they'd utilize Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the infield following Nick Gonzales' activation from the injured list Monday afternoon, Derek Shelton unveiled an even more interesting intention to shift Oneil Cruz from his usual position as the team's starting shortstop into a prominent role out in center field.
The move is expected to serve as a permanent transition, one that -- at least for the rest of the season -- will allow Kiner-Falefa to take on a more regular role at shortstop with Gonzales returning to his starting role at second base.
"I think the change with Oneil, it's something that we've been talking about. It's not something we took lightly," Shelton said. "He's an unbelievable athlete. We feel that (center field) is probably the best position for him and for the Pirates. We wanted to make sure that we had a runway of games going into next year, for that to be important. Excited to see him out there. This kid is a dynamic athlete. With the way that we're set up now, I feel that's the best thing for us."
According to Shelton, there were plenty of factors that went into this decision. Cruz has had an up-and-down experience over at shortstop since debuting at the major-league level in 2021. He's committed 42 errors in 202 career games, including 24 -- the second most in Major League Baseball -- during a season in which he's also posted minus-8 defensive runs saved.
Cruz's lingering ankle injury, one that caused him to undergo season-ending surgery after playing in just nine games last season, seems to have factored into the plans, too.
"The stress of playing on the dirt is something that is very challenging. I will say this one thing: I give Oneil a ton of credit, man. He's worked real hard on his defense. He worked really hard on his defense at short. He put in a ton of time," Shelton said. "This was not something that came from a lack of effort, lack of work, because he's worked his butt off out there all year long. This is something where we just kinda felt it was the best thing for him and the organization right now."
Cruz is slated to bat third and serve as the team's designated hitter in tonight's series opener against the Cubs at PNC Park. Shelton said the plan is for Cruz to DH for a few days while taking part in pregame work out in center. He took fly balls out there Monday afternoon.
While he's spent over 1,700 major-league innings over at shortstop, Cruz isn't entirely unfamiliar with the outfield. Cruz hasn't played center in a regular-season game -- he spent six innings out there during spring training in 2021 -- but he did spend 80 innings out in left field for Class AAA Indianapolis in 2022. He's played in one inning out in left as a major leaguer, so there is plenty of work that will need to be done for him to feel comfortable with this transition from the dirt to the outfield grass.
"He's been in the outfield before. It's something that's not completely foreign to him, but we want to make sure we put him in the best position possible," Shelton said. "Shortstop is a challenging position. I think we're gonna see some freedom out of him. The largest component of this is we're taking a kid that's an elite athlete and putting him in the middle of the field. We've seen how center fielders can impact the game. You can impact the game from center field. I'm excited to see that. I'm excited to watch him do those things."
Cruz learned of the team's decision to move him into the outfield following Sunday's win against the Reds. Shelton said Cruz was disappointed when presented with the news.
"Anybody who plays shortstop wants to play shortstop. That's how it is," Shelton said. "But I think the one thing we know about Oneil Cruz is he's an unbelievable athlete, he's a really good teammate and he wants to win. I think that's the most important part."
Ben Cherington said he respected Cruz's reaction, which spoke to the amount of work and the dedication he put into trying to get better at a position in which he experienced his share of struggles.
"I think he put his life into it. It has been part of his identity as a baseball player from a young age and he’s worked really hard at it. He’s talked openly about how important that was to him. Really respect that," Cherington said. "You are not going to feel that way, even if we feel it makes sense, a player is not going to feel that way and then in one conversation feel differently. Disappointed. Professional. There will be more conversations, for sure. As it would be for any of us, it will take some time for him to fully process it. We will be there with him. He’s a baseball player. He’s going to want to be out in the field and we’ll help him to that.”
I asked Cherington if he thought this was an opportunity Cruz would embrace. He said there were three reasons why he believes Cruz would: His willingness to win, his identity as a baseball player and the potential for him to actually enjoy and have fun with this new challenge.
“The Oneil that I know from the time he was in the minor leagues until now, he really does want to be on a winning team. He wants to be part of winning. I think he’ll be able to see that this gives us an even better chance of doing that, hopefully. It increases the chances of doing that. That’s how we see it. We hope that he sees it that way. I think he will," Cherington said. "Second is that he’s a baseball player. He’s a shortstop and he’s identified as a shortstop. But he’s a baseball player first. He’s going to want to be out there doing great things on a baseball field, and this is an opportunity to do that. He’s got a lot of space out there to run around and show off all the things he has to show off. That probably leads to the third thing: I think, in time, this can be fun for him because of that space. To some extent at shortstop, while there were certain things that he could do that were incredible, in center field, in theory, there’s even more space for him to just do things that the athleticism should allow him to do. There are some features of that athleticism that we believe already suggest that that degree of difficulty thing may be different in center than it was at short. It will take work, focus, time. There’s no substitute for the hard work that he’ll have to put in. But we believe he’ll do that and he’s got a chance to be really good out there.”
