Oneil Cruz not only leads the major leagues in strikeouts but has more than twice as many as he does hits. The Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop, who set the Statcast record for exit velocity, appears as confounded as anyone about his struggles at the plate.
After his 10th consecutive game with at least one strikeout and ninth games in the past 13 without a hit in Sunday’s 6-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox, Cruz could come up with only one reason for the scuffling.
“It’s all about confidence,” Cruz said through interpreter Stephen Morales, a Pirates coach. “I’ve been losing my confidence a little bit lately, but, game by game, hopefully, I’ll get it back.”
That’s a striking statement from the 6-foot-7, 230-pound Cruz, who previously proclaimed his belief that his combination of power and speed made him capable of joining the prestigious 40-40 club for home runs and stolen bases.
The easy explanation is that Cruz hasn’t regained his rhythm or timing after missing the majority of last season with a fractured left ankle that required surgery and extensive recovery and rehabilitation. He played in only nine games before being injured on an awkward slide into home plate against the Chicago White Sox at PNC Park.
“Getting confidence back is a huge part especially being out for a year, but we’re working hard everyday and battle through some stuff and we’re here to do that everyday to get better,” Cruz said. “We’ll be fine.”
Through the first nine games this season, Cruz was slashing .342/.375/.500 but had 14 strikeouts and only two walks. He homered on Opening Day for the second consecutive season, hitting a tying solo shot in the eighth inning of a 12-inning win at Miami. Perhaps his best highlight came April 6, when he delivered his first career walk-off hit with an RBI single in the 11th inning to beat the Baltimore Orioles.
Since then, Cruz is batting .104 (5 for 48) with 23 strikeouts against four walks, with his slash line sinking to .209/.261/.326. He has played in all 22 of the Pirates’ games and had multiple strikeouts in 12, including four games with three strikeouts and, the low point, getting a golden sombrero with four at Philadelphia on April 14.
Cruz batted sixth or seventh in the order through the first five games, when the Pirates faced a steady string of left-handed starters. He then moved to the leadoff spot, where he hit for a higher batting average (.229) and had his lone double and two of his three home runs.
But after Cruz went 4 for 30 (.133) with 15 strikeouts and one walk on the seven-game road trip, Pirates manager Derek Shelton dropped him to the eighth spot in the order the past two games to alleviate the pressure. Shelton dismissed the notion that Cruz needs a day off, despite trying to give him one Tuesday before third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes was a late scratch because of lower back tightness and forced a lineup change.
“That’s why we moved him out of the one spot, down in the order,” Shelton said. “He’s a big part of our offense. We have to figure it out. He’s not gonna figure it out by getting multiple days off right now. We need to run him out there.”
Shelton was echoing the comments of general manager Ben Cherington, who said Sunday on his weekly radio show on 93.7 FM that the best way for Cruz to break out of his slump is to stay in the lineup.
Averaging 1.68 strikeouts per game, Cruz is on pace for 272 this season. That would shatter the major league season record of 223, set by Mark Reynolds of Arizona in 2009. Then again, Cruz also was on a record strikeout pace over 87 games as a rookie in 2022, when he averaged 1.45 strikeouts a game but projected to hit 32 home runs and 101 RBIs over a full season. Those type of numbers explain Cherington’s rationale and, perhaps, his patience.
“The simplest answer is to just let him play. Just keep playing,” Cherington said. “It doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of work going on behind the scenes to support him and continue to coach him — of course there is — but the biggest, simplest thing is to just keep playing. …
“Personally speaking, nothing that’s happened for him so far this season has been all that surprising for me. He’s done some great things, and we know he’s capable of doing that. And he’s had some days where he’s been challenged. That seems pretty predictable coming into the season, given what he’s coming off of. This is a hard game. It’s hard as a young player to miss a full season and come back. So you’re going to see some of those ups and downs early on.”
Cruz credited his teammates for trying to cheer him up, pointing out Hayes and first baseman Rowdy Tellez in particular for their advice on how to handle the scuffling. Before a postgame interview, center fielder Michael A. Taylor stopped at Cruz’s locker to offer some support. Locker mate Connor Joe said Cruz is too talented to not turn it around soon.
“Yeah, we do believe in him. He’s gonna do really special things,” Joe said. “When you miss out on 600 at-bats, it’s gonna take you a little bit to get going. I don’t care who you are, you’re gonna go through some times in baseball and it’s gonna humble you. But, I can tell you in the clubhouse there’s no loss of confidence in Oneil. You know he’s going to put in the work behind the scenes and get back to the player he can be and the player he is.”
That’s what Cruz wants and is trying to rediscover while dealing with what he called “good times and rough times.”
“It’s a constant battle for me after being out for a year just to get back to where I was and gain that confidence,” Cruz said. “It’s an everyday battle, but I’ll be fine.”
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.