I'm far, far, far more tired of how he's forever been babied. And, to be further blunt, I can't fathom how anyone still sees that as the best approach.
First inning, first game:
Sure, that's a challenge for a center fielder. It's a straightaway scorcher off the bat of Brett Baty and, from that direct an angle, the trajectory's a difficult read. And if I'm talking about Andy Van Slyke,Omar Moreno, Bill Virdon or Max Carey, I'm offering the benefit of the doubt all day.
But Cruz?
When he does this ...
... with the very next batter?
Come on, man.
Mets 11, Pirates 7 was how the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 145th season opener finished here today at Citi Field, but it unquestionably unraveled with the two glaring gaffes above, handing the home team a handful of runs and, uglier still, knocking Paul Skenes, the ace of all aces, off the mound after two-thirds of an inning, since Cruz was pivotal in pushing Skenes' pitch count to 37 in a span of a few minutes.
You know, right out of spring training.
Don't be blaming Don Kelly for the hook. He's got no choice in that scenario. None.
"You know Paul," Kelly would reply when asked how Skenes reacted. "He's a competitor, and he wants to stay out there and pitch. It's a really tough thing going to get him in the first inning there. At the bottom of it is Paul's health. When you're getting close to 40 pitches ..."
Kelly then recalled Francisco Lindor leading off with a lengthy plate appearance for a walk.
"Lindor had a seven-pitch at-bat, so if Paul runs another seven to 10 pitches, you're running into dangerous territory with your starting pitcher in one inning, so we had to make the move."
Emphatically agreed.
Don't be blaming Skenes, either. Not much, anyway. He'd concede two soft singles, a sacrifice fly and another walk before Cruz's two mistakes. He'd then blow three straight heaters by Carson Benge before hitting the next guy. Then, the hook.
If not for Cruz, a couple score, at most. And more important, Skenes sticks around.
So, what was it this time?
The common crush of cameras and microphones surrounded the No. 15 stall:
"The sun was right in front of my face," Cruz would say through coach/interpreter Stephen Morales to the initial question about his inning. "Obviously, we don't want those things to happen, but it was really uncomfortable today to have the sun right in front of my face. I was trying my best, but it was tough."
I wasn't wild about that, given that Kelly had cited the sun only regarding the second mistake. So I asked Cruz to clarify if the sun was an issue on both.
"Not really the first one, but the second one, for sure," he'd reply. "The first one was one of those low line drives that it takes a little more time for me to read and they're really tough balls to read because you don't know if you're going to have to come in or go back. It got in the sun a bit at the end, but those are the ones I definitely have to get better at. And I'll get better at it, for sure."
I like Cruz. It's really hard not to. He's engaging to the extreme.
He's just not engaged. With the job. Not anywhere near enough.
Everyone's free to marvel at his physical freakishness, the river blasts, the rocket throws, even the real results he'll achieve. If nothing else, he's become baseball's reigning king of the Statcast realm, and I've no complaint with anyone putting him over on that count. Some of that stuff's seriously impressive.
But this sport's founded on consistency. On how repeatable a player can pull off the routine. And this ... even talking about how often Cruz fails at the routine can feel old.
He himself isn't old, by the way. He's 27, going on 28 this October.
Does that surprise anybody?
It probably should, given how the Pirates speak about -- and manage -- Cruz. They speak about him as if he's some up-and-coming prospect, as if he's this titanic talent just waiting to be taught the right way and, from there, first-ballot induction into Cooperstown.
News flash: He hit .200 in 2025, a figure that not so long ago would've embarrassed an American League reliever.
News flash: Scouts have long sworn by the saying that a player shows precisely who he'll be in the bigs by the 500th plate appearance, and this day raised Cruz's total to ... 1,558.
News flash: He might not be worth all this fuss.
What fuss?
Well, at the risk of parsing a raw press gathering, when Kelly was asked what message Tony Beasley, the third base coach and the latest to be appointed by management to mentor Cruz, might've shared after the first inning, this was Kelly's response: "Yeah, we both did. Once it's over, there's nothing you can do about it. You gotta stay in the game and keep on going. He had some tough at-bats. I know it's a small thing, but the ground ball he hit in the second, he was busting it down the line. It's a small, good sign, but he's going to keep working to get better."
Sorry, I'm all out of brownie points for busting it 90 feet, doubly so when it's done by a perennial under-performer. And that's what I'm talking about when I suggest he's being babied.
Hey, how about some sunglasses?
I asked Kelly:
"Yeah," he came back. "We need to make sure we're prepared right there."
For the record: Cruz never donned -- nor was seen with -- sunglasses at any point.
Why?
Why's any coach, much less one as accomplished as Beasley, being a mentor?
Why did something similar arise when Marcell Ozuna was signed as a free agent?
At what stage of any professional career is having a mentor as silly as it sounds?
Look, this was 1 of 162. The Pirates will be better, and Skenes will absolutely be better. But winning can't come without culture change after a decade straight of losing, and I've yet to see a significant culture change in any walk of life that wasn't accompanied by real accountability.
GETTY
• Skenes wasn't burying batters in two-strike counts as he usually does, but both his velocity and command were at their norms, best evidenced by 26 strikes among the 37 pitches.
I asked how he was feeling, both in the pen and on the mound:
"Yeah, I felt good," he'd reply casually. "I just missed on a couple pitches."
Right. Couple walks. Couple bloops.
"You've gotta look at it for what it is. There wasn't a ton of hard contact."
No point beating himself up. There'll be better days. Like, all of them.
• Anyone eager to rip the pitching has plenty of other targets: The bullpen, my chief concern throughout spring training, gave up six additional runs on seven additional walks and seven additional hits, including two home runs off Justin Lawrence in the sixth inning. Only Gregory Soto, in the eighth, pitched clean, including two strikeouts.
• That said, hey, how about those new hitters?
Brandon Lowe banged home runs in his first two at-bats, one a wind-aided wall-scraper but the other a boomer to right-center, and fellow offseason acquisition Ryan O'Hearn went the other way to left. Together, they'd go 4 for 8 with four RBIs.
THE ASYLUM
DK: For all that's new, this Cruz stuff's so old
I'm tired of Oneil Cruz's mistakes.
I'm far, far, far more tired of how he's forever been babied. And, to be further blunt, I can't fathom how anyone still sees that as the best approach.
First inning, first game:
Sure, that's a challenge for a center fielder. It's a straightaway scorcher off the bat of Brett Baty and, from that direct an angle, the trajectory's a difficult read. And if I'm talking about Andy Van Slyke, Omar Moreno, Bill Virdon or Max Carey, I'm offering the benefit of the doubt all day.
But Cruz?
When he does this ...
... with the very next batter?
Come on, man.
Mets 11, Pirates 7 was how the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 145th season opener finished here today at Citi Field, but it unquestionably unraveled with the two glaring gaffes above, handing the home team a handful of runs and, uglier still, knocking Paul Skenes, the ace of all aces, off the mound after two-thirds of an inning, since Cruz was pivotal in pushing Skenes' pitch count to 37 in a span of a few minutes.
You know, right out of spring training.
Don't be blaming Don Kelly for the hook. He's got no choice in that scenario. None.
"You know Paul," Kelly would reply when asked how Skenes reacted. "He's a competitor, and he wants to stay out there and pitch. It's a really tough thing going to get him in the first inning there. At the bottom of it is Paul's health. When you're getting close to 40 pitches ..."
Kelly then recalled Francisco Lindor leading off with a lengthy plate appearance for a walk.
"Lindor had a seven-pitch at-bat, so if Paul runs another seven to 10 pitches, you're running into dangerous territory with your starting pitcher in one inning, so we had to make the move."
Emphatically agreed.
Don't be blaming Skenes, either. Not much, anyway. He'd concede two soft singles, a sacrifice fly and another walk before Cruz's two mistakes. He'd then blow three straight heaters by Carson Benge before hitting the next guy. Then, the hook.
If not for Cruz, a couple score, at most. And more important, Skenes sticks around.
So, what was it this time?
The common crush of cameras and microphones surrounded the No. 15 stall:
"The sun was right in front of my face," Cruz would say through coach/interpreter Stephen Morales to the initial question about his inning. "Obviously, we don't want those things to happen, but it was really uncomfortable today to have the sun right in front of my face. I was trying my best, but it was tough."
I wasn't wild about that, given that Kelly had cited the sun only regarding the second mistake. So I asked Cruz to clarify if the sun was an issue on both.
"Not really the first one, but the second one, for sure," he'd reply. "The first one was one of those low line drives that it takes a little more time for me to read and they're really tough balls to read because you don't know if you're going to have to come in or go back. It got in the sun a bit at the end, but those are the ones I definitely have to get better at. And I'll get better at it, for sure."
I like Cruz. It's really hard not to. He's engaging to the extreme.
He's just not engaged. With the job. Not anywhere near enough.
Everyone's free to marvel at his physical freakishness, the river blasts, the rocket throws, even the real results he'll achieve. If nothing else, he's become baseball's reigning king of the Statcast realm, and I've no complaint with anyone putting him over on that count. Some of that stuff's seriously impressive.
But this sport's founded on consistency. On how repeatable a player can pull off the routine. And this ... even talking about how often Cruz fails at the routine can feel old.
He himself isn't old, by the way. He's 27, going on 28 this October.
Does that surprise anybody?
It probably should, given how the Pirates speak about -- and manage -- Cruz. They speak about him as if he's some up-and-coming prospect, as if he's this titanic talent just waiting to be taught the right way and, from there, first-ballot induction into Cooperstown.
News flash: He hit .200 in 2025, a figure that not so long ago would've embarrassed an American League reliever.
News flash: Scouts have long sworn by the saying that a player shows precisely who he'll be in the bigs by the 500th plate appearance, and this day raised Cruz's total to ... 1,558.
News flash: He might not be worth all this fuss.
What fuss?
Well, at the risk of parsing a raw press gathering, when Kelly was asked what message Tony Beasley, the third base coach and the latest to be appointed by management to mentor Cruz, might've shared after the first inning, this was Kelly's response: "Yeah, we both did. Once it's over, there's nothing you can do about it. You gotta stay in the game and keep on going. He had some tough at-bats. I know it's a small thing, but the ground ball he hit in the second, he was busting it down the line. It's a small, good sign, but he's going to keep working to get better."
Sorry, I'm all out of brownie points for busting it 90 feet, doubly so when it's done by a perennial under-performer. And that's what I'm talking about when I suggest he's being babied.
Hey, how about some sunglasses?
I asked Kelly:
"Yeah," he came back. "We need to make sure we're prepared right there."
For the record: Cruz never donned -- nor was seen with -- sunglasses at any point.
Why?
Why's any coach, much less one as accomplished as Beasley, being a mentor?
Why did something similar arise when Marcell Ozuna was signed as a free agent?
At what stage of any professional career is having a mentor as silly as it sounds?
Look, this was 1 of 162. The Pirates will be better, and Skenes will absolutely be better. But winning can't come without culture change after a decade straight of losing, and I've yet to see a significant culture change in any walk of life that wasn't accompanied by real accountability.
GETTY
• Skenes wasn't burying batters in two-strike counts as he usually does, but both his velocity and command were at their norms, best evidenced by 26 strikes among the 37 pitches.
I asked how he was feeling, both in the pen and on the mound:
"Yeah, I felt good," he'd reply casually. "I just missed on a couple pitches."
Right. Couple walks. Couple bloops.
"You've gotta look at it for what it is. There wasn't a ton of hard contact."
No point beating himself up. There'll be better days. Like, all of them.
• Anyone eager to rip the pitching has plenty of other targets: The bullpen, my chief concern throughout spring training, gave up six additional runs on seven additional walks and seven additional hits, including two home runs off Justin Lawrence in the sixth inning. Only Gregory Soto, in the eighth, pitched clean, including two strikeouts.
• That said, hey, how about those new hitters?
Brandon Lowe banged home runs in his first two at-bats, one a wind-aided wall-scraper but the other a boomer to right-center, and fellow offseason acquisition Ryan O'Hearn went the other way to left. Together, they'd go 4 for 8 with four RBIs.
• Nick Gonzales showed, too, at 2 for 4 with two RBIs.
• I'd bet on a W if Jake Mangum or Jhostynxon Garcia were in center.
• Thanks for reading my baseball coverage.
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