Pirates by Position: Oneil Cruz, Rodolfo Castro can make a case as starting middle infielders

Over the final five weeks of the season, the Pittsburgh Pirates played Oneil Cruz and Rodolfo Castro together for 14 games and gave a glimpse of what could become their double-play pairing of the future.

A defense featuring the young Dominicans — Cruz turned 24 in October, and Castro turns 24 in May — in the middle of the infield has the promise to be either dazzling or disastrous, if not a bit of both.

Perhaps that explains the reluctance of Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton to anoint either Castro or Cruz a starter before spring training begins in Bradenton, Fla.

Both the Pirates general manager and field manager talked about creating competition for starting jobs, even though they eliminated most of it through trades and other transactions.

“I would emphasize the competition,” Cherington said, “but there will be a runway to be part of that competition and continue to earn it.”

The Pirates turned this slick double play to end the game

And of course Oneil Cruz launched a missile to first pic.twitter.com/YQgZdph48a

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 31, 2022

Cruz has the inside edge at shortstop, where he started 77 games after his late-June promotion last season, now that Kevin Newman (31 starts) was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds and Diego Castillo (30 starts) to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Castro made 17 starts at short while Newman was out with groin and hamstring injuries.

The 6-foot-7, 220-pound Cruz flashed power with 17 home runs, 34 extra-base hits and 54 RBIs in 87 games, setting a Statcast record with the hardest-hit ball in recorded history on a 122.4 mph single off the top of the Clemente Wall at PNC Park and the hardest throw across the infield, at 97.8 mph. Of course, Cruz also had 126 strikeouts in 361 plate appearances (34.9%) and committed 17 errors at shortstop.

3 innings into his 2022 debut, @Pirates' Oneil Cruz has registered:

????‍☠️The hardest throw by an infielder in @MLB this year (96.7 mph)
????‍☠️The hardest hit ball of the year by a Pirate (112.9)
????‍☠️The 3 fastest sprint speeds of the year by a Pirate (31.5, 30.7, 30.3) pic.twitter.com/nScTK5mD4A

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 21, 2022

Oneil Cruz with the fastest throw (97.8 mph) recorded by an infielder in the Statcast era!!! pic.twitter.com/pSIdnD78tT

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 14, 2022

“I feel like I was able to already demonstrate that I can play shortstop at the big-league level,” Cruz said last October. “The mindset right now is to continue getting better at that position, to master my position. Like I’ve told many people in the past, that’s my position. That’s the position I’ve always seen myself playing. That’s the position that I love. I believe that, more than anything, I have been able to demonstrate that I have what it takes to play big-league shortstop.”

Despite that declaration, Cruz vowed to spend the offseason improving his defense, focusing in particular on his throws and making the routine plays and not just the spectacular ones. The Pirates were impressed with how he played this winter in the Dominican, showing signs of outward growth and leadership.

“Consistency is the main thing, and the biggest part of that is when you’re that big, making sure that your feet work. We’re talking defensively, your feet work, that they’re standing underneath you,” Shelton said last month. “So that will be the thing that we’ll work on during spring training, just making the routine play.

“Offensively, we saw it in September where his swing decisions got better. That’s something that is going to continue to grow. (He’s) going to continue to learn because there’s only one other guy in the game that’s that size, so learning the strike zone, learning what he can swing at because he does have that freak ability to hit balls at his face and balls that bounce a long way. We need to make sure that he narrows out the zone so he can consistently hit the ball hard.”

The Pirates addressed one concern by improving their defense at first base with a pair of veterans, trading for Ji-Man Choi and signing free agent Carlos Santana. They should help make Cruz’s throws to first less of an adventure and more of a certainty.

Related

• Pirates by Position: 1B, DH addressed with additions of Ji-Man Choi, Carlos Santana
• Pirates by Position: Counting on Austin Hedges at catcher until prospects are promoted

Finding a double-play partner for Cruz is the next challenge, one that could be critical to his defensive development. He played alongside a revolving door of second basemen last season, from Castillo to Hoy Park, Tucupita Marcano, Josh VanMeter, Newman, Castro and Ji Hwan Bae. Of the 10 players who started games at second base for the Pirates last season, only Castro, Marcano and Bae remain.

“I think it’s the consistency is going to help us as a group, but it will definitely help Oneil,” Shelton said. “I think the fact that he has a year or half a year under his belt, that’s going to be really important. Just the actual experience of playing. The one thing that stood out from when he was in winter ball was kind of how he took charge, we heard, in the infield, and I think that’s something that’s going to continue to grow. And it’ll grow as you play more but … the feedback on that was really interesting and kind of made me smile a little bit.”

Castro started 30 games at shortstop, 28 at second base and 21 at third base last season, so the Pirates have to weigh whether they want to lock him in at one position or use him in a super-utility role given that he might be their best backup option at both short and third. Another thing to consider: Castro has nine errors in 52 games at second base, and 17 total errors in 100 career major-league games.

The Pirates love Castro’s versatility and vitality but are looking for more consistency and maturity, or what Shelton called the “yin and yang” of youthfulness. Castro’s lollygagging on a pop fly against Arizona that turned into a double play was deemed unacceptable and drew a demotion in early June, and a cellphone slipping out of his back pocket on a slide into third base earned a one-game suspension.

That's a career-high 6 HR's for Rodolfo Castro this season!
His 2-run shot in the 3rd inning extends the @Pirates lead to 3-0!
Castro is due up 4th as we head to the bottom of the 5th at PNC Park - live on AT&T SportsNet!#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/Hjj0Jb79Y2

— AT&T SportsNet™ PIT (@ATTSportsNetPIT) September 7, 2022

Castro slashed .233/.299/.427 with eight doubles, four triples, 11 home runs and 27 RBIs last season. In 19 games in August, he hit .318 with four homers and a .966 OPS. Over his final 31 games, Castro batted only .207 but had six homers and 17 RBIs.

Still, Shelton isn’t ruling out Bae or Marcano, both of whom showed flashes of speed in smaller sample sizes.

“At second base, we do not have a ‘Hey, this guy is going to be the starter,’” Shelton said. “Rudy did a really nice job, and he did a really nice job especially in August and September when he came up. I think as much as anybody, because of some of the things he went through last year, we really saw him grow up.”

Two offseason additions should help Castro and Cruz. One is the hiring of Mendy Lopez as infield coach after bench coach Don Kelly handled that role last season. The other is the signing of Santana, a fellow Dominican with a magnetic personality who is expected to serve as a mentor to the team’s Latin position players.

“It’s an added benefit,” Cherington said. “We happen to have a good-sized group of young Dominican and young Latin American players emerging and coming onto the team. So, sure, it helps to have experienced veteran models for those players, and Carlos has a built and earned a reputation for being a very reliable teammate, a very reliable pro, for doing the right stuff, for working hard, for keeping himself in shape, all those things that we would hope our young player group aspires to be.”

Given that Newman and Park were the starters on Opening Day last year and neither is still with the team, the Pirates know that things could change quickly in the middle infield. They have top-10 prospects in shortstop Liover Peguero and second basemen Nick Gonzales and Termarr Johnson, their No. 1 pick last summer, so there’s no room for comfort no matter who wins the starting job this spring.

But make no mistake: Castro and Cruz are the front-runners.

“We’d certainly like to get some more stability sooner than later,” Cherington said. “We’ve gone through a lot of change. There’s been a lot of different guys playing out there. I think that means we’re closer to (having) more stability because some of those younger players have had a chance to get some traction in the major leagues. …

“We certainly hope some of some of the solutions we need in the infield are already with the Pirates, and we certainly also hope some of those guys can start to form a stable infield combination and give us a strong foundation there for years to come.”