With every loss, the chorus of calls for Oneil Cruz to be called up to the Pittsburgh Pirates has grown louder, and the patience to prioritize the development of the 6-foot-7 shortstop has worn thinner. The Pirates lost nine consecutive games on a road trip to Atlanta and St. Louis while relying heavily upon rookies who have shown neither the productivity nor the potential of the 23-year-old Cruz. The clamoring for Cruz could come to a crescendo, as there is anticipation that he will soon make his season debut. It couldn’t come at a better time, given the end of their nine-game losing streak and the start of a seven-game homestand against the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs. The Pirates have been extra cautious with Cruz, ranked their No. 1 prospect by Baseball America and No. 3 by MLB Pipeline and a top-25 prospect in the minors by both outlets. The Pirates front office, which has promoted its top-five farm system as a key to the future, knows it can’t afford for Cruz to be a flop when he arrives. "We’re making sure we cover all possible scenarios he may encounter in Pittsburgh,” Pirates director of coaching and development John Baker told Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic, "and we’re getting pretty close to checking all those off the list.” Earlier this month, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington went over the list of considerations with Cruz, from strikeout-to-walk ratio to consistency of hard contact to the willingness of Cruz to show positional versatility by playing in the outfield. "He’s trending in a good direction,” Cherington said June 3. "So we’ll keep an eye on it.” Perhaps the most important factor is service-time manipulation, a common practice in MLB to delay the promotion of top prospects to protect their Super Two status so the club gains an extra year of player control. The Super Two date is a moving target, but last year the cutoff was June 6, so the Pirates appear to be safe now. Cruz made a splash when he debuted last October, recording the hardest hit by a Pirates player in the Statcast era with a 118.2-mph single and homering in the season finale. He also showed range at shortstop and speed on the basepaths, creating a much-needed buzz. Of course, Cruz didn’t help his cause with a slow start this season after not making the Opening Day roster this spring. He batted.176 in April at Triple-A Indianapolis but boosted his average to.256 by the end of May. In 10 games this month, he has a.294/.390/.559 slash line with a double, triple, two home runs and six RBIs, striking out six times and drawing five walks. In 54 games this season, he’s slashing.232/.341/.429 with six doubles, three triples, nine homers and 33 RBIs with a 23.3% strikeout rate. Cherington addressed another issue, one that can’t be measured by statistics: "Where’s the player right now in his performance and skill development and the off-field stuff? What’s the opportunity? Is there an opportunity to actually play a lot if he comes up here?” Cruz played exclusively at shortstop this past week for Indianapolis. Aside from the slow start, the Pirates have had two reasons to take their time with Cruz while playing Rodolfo Castro, Diego Castillo and even Hoy Park at shortstop with Kevin Newman on the 60-day injured list. The first has to do with his attitude. There has never been an everyday shortstop in MLB at his size, so the Pirates have reservations about whether he can stay a the position long term. They also have a rising star at the position in Liover Peguero, 21, their No. 5 prospect and a top-100 by both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. Cruz has balked at the idea of playing the outfield, insisting that his glove belongs in the infield dirt. If not for his indifference, he could have been playing in the outfield this season ahead of fellow rookies Jack Suwinski, Cal Mitchell, Travis Swaggerty and Canaan Smith-Njigba. Then again, Cruz has to look no further than Cole Tucker, the Pirates’ first-round pick in 2014, for proof of validation. Tucker had only played shortstop in his career when the Pirates asked him to move to the outfield in the covid-shortened 2020 season. Tucker did so willingly but didn’t show enough at the plate or in the field to be a starter and was designated for assignment on Memorial Day. The Pirates have lived with the errors at shortstop by NL Gold Glove finalist Newman (four in 14 games), Castro (5 in 21) and even the sure-handed Castillo, who had three in one game against the Cardinals. Contributing to their skid was the lack of production at the plate by their rookies on the road trip: Suwinski batted.083 (2 for 24) and Castillo.050 (2 for 20) in eight games, and Mitchell.211 (4 for 19) in seven. Only Tucupita Marcano (.276) hit with any type of consistency. Problem is, the Pirates aren’t willing to let Cruz fail on the job in the majors. They want to do everything to ensure he succeeds and stays in the lineup, whether it’s at shortstop or another position. With his importance to their future, they see no need to rush him to the majors for a team that is 10½ games out of first place in the NL Central. While playing a handful of rookies every game, Pirates manager Derek Shelton repeatedly has stressed the importance of teaching and development at the major-league level. No one sounded more relieved when the Pirates beat the Cardinals on Wednesday night to end the losing streak than Shelton. "It’s not just another win. This is a win we needed,” Shelton said. "With the exception of the game we played last night, I thought we played well on this trip. We’re a young club. We’ve got to find ways to win games. That’s an important message for this group. But it was a big one.” An even more important message to the Pirates could come with the arrival of Cruz, that much-needed help is on the way. Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter . and help us continue covering the stories that matter to you and your community.