Pirates' Oneil Cruz stunned by position switch, will 'do my best' at playing center field

Oneil Cruz was blindsided by the Pittsburgh Pirates’ decision to move him from shortstop to center field, saying he was disappointed that it took him by surprise.

Speaking publicly Tuesday afternoon for the first time since the Pirates revealed the position switch, Cruz admitted he “wasn’t expecting it” despite committing 24 errors in 985 1/3 innings over 112 games (107 starts) and recording minus-8 defensive runs saved this season.

“Not good news but not bad at the same time,” Cruz said through translator Stephen Morales, a Pirates coach. “There are some things that you can’t control as a player, and that’s what the organization decided in that moment and I’m just going to do my best. … Never went through my mind that I was going to be moved because I was doing whatever it took for me to be the best at shortstop every day. But, no, I wasn’t expecting it.”

At 6-foot-7, Cruz was the tallest starting shortstop in major league history but becomes less of a unicorn in center field, where 6-8 slugger Aaron Judge has played 203 of his 791 games over his nine-year career with the New York Yankees. Washington Nationals rookie James Wood also stands 6-7 but plays left field.

Cruz, 25, is still learning to accept that he no longer is an infielder, though he realizes that his combination of size, speed and arm strength should allow him to make the transition to playing center.

“I’m just going to go out here and do my best, get better everyday and just put my mind in the right place and try to be the best outfielder I can be,” Cruz said. “I see it this way: I’m going to be playing in the middle of the diamond, still, in the outfield. All I have to do is just erase it in my mind that I was a shortstop and do my best out there as a center fielder.”

Cruz did early work in the outfield, taking fly balls from a Juggs machine under the watch of first base/outfield coach Tarrik Brock then practiced making pre-pitch reads and jumps with Pirates center fielder Michael A. Taylor before shagging flies during batting practice.

“He did a good job,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He’s a really good athlete, so balls off machines, doing reads, doing breaks, he looked very natural. There are going to be bumps in the road. We understand that. There are going to be plays that are challenging for all outfielders. But the initial watching him do reads, breaks, steps, he was very good.”

And Cruz already has a Gold Glove.

That came courtesy of an exchange with Taylor, who won an AL Gold Glove in center with the Kansas City Royals in 2021. Taylor wanted to practice taking grounders and needed to borrow an infield glove a few weeks ago, so he traded his turquoise outfield mitt embroidered with the gold Rawlings patch to Cruz.

“He’s going to get one,” Taylor told TribLive. “The athleticism, obviously, is there. He’s got a great arm. He’s extremely fast. He’s got great instincts. I think playing shortstop for so long is an asset to him. The reads are different, but you have so much more time.

“If you can react and read in the infield then go to the outfield, the game slows down for you, so I think it will be an easy transition. He’s got T-Brock to help him. I’m excited to see what he can do out there.”

Taylor knows how Cruz feels, as he was drafted in the sixth round by the Nationals as a shortstop out of Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Westminster Academy in 2009 and was an infielder in his first professional season before switching to the outfield at age 19. Taylor said Cruz’s greatest challenge will be wrapping his head around the position move.

“We all have a vision of what position we’re going to play and what our career is going to look like, so accepting the change for me was the biggest thing then committing myself to be the best outfielder that I can be,” Taylor said. “I didn’t get any sense of resistance from him today. He’s out there working. He did early work, regular work, and now he’s shagging with me. So it seems like he’s on board. He’s putting in the work.”

Shelton said he expected an initial level of shock and disappointment from Cruz but said he saw a “different smile on his face” two days after receiving the news following Sunday’s walk-off win over the Cincinnati Reds.

“Did it take a day?” Shelton said. “Yeah, probably. I think we expected that.”

The early concerns with Cruz are adapting to the warning track and outfield wall — which Shelton called a “learned trait” — and making situational plays such as hitting the cutoff.

“The one thing we are going to run into with ‘Cruzy’ is he has a weapon in his arm, and he’s going to want to use it at times,” Shelton said. “There will be times where we will probably try to bring it back a little bit. I would rather than be the case than having to push him the other way.

“I think there is going to be times he does it and there is going to be times he does it and we are like, ‘Don’t do it,’ and it’s going to come out really well on our end. There is going to be times he does it and we wish he wouldn’t have done it. The fact that he has that weapon and the fact that is probably going to be his mindset, I would rather be that way and have to bring it back down than push it the other way.”

Cruz’s arm strength averages 95.6 mph, which ranks in the 99th percentile in arm strength per Statcast, but his maximum velocity on an infield throw is 98.6 mph. That has Pirates All-Star left fielder Bryan Reynolds wondering how fast Cruz can throw with the benefit of a running start.

“See how he can throw one with a crop hop behind him. He’s throwing 98 mph from the infield. A crow hop might add 1-2 mph,” Reynolds said. “I’ve never seen him out there, but he’s athletic so I’m sure he can handle it. He’s got a good arm, and he can run fast. Those are pretty good characteristics.”

Cruz has played one inning in left field in his major-league career, which came as a rookie in 2022, and hasn’t played center field since experimenting there for six innings in spring training 2021. So he would have preferred the transition took place in the offseason.

“If you left it up to me, I think it was better after the season,” Cruz said. “But I can’t control that. That’s a decision they made, and I’m going to go after it.”

Cruz was in the starting lineup at designated hitter for the second consecutive game, however, and Shelton said the Pirates don’t have a timeline for him to play center in a major-league game “but, hopefully, sooner than later.” They want Cruz to work with Brock and check off some boxes first before making his debut at the new position.

“If it were up to me, I would play center field today. That’s their decision. I would like to start as soon as possible,” said Cruz, who plans to reach out to San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr., who won Gold and Platinum gloves in right field last year after switching from shortstop. “Like every player that plays any position, you want to be the best at your position. If that’s the move, I’m going to try to do my best every day to become one of the best.”