Pirates Take 5: On Oneil Cruz's record pace, Ke'Bryan Hayes' Gold Glove race, Bryan Reynolds' familiar space
Oneil Cruz wasn’t shy about setting out to break Statcast records, and the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie shortstop finished with the highest exit velocity and hardest throw across the infield in recorded baseball history.
As much as Cruz has been mocked for those metrics while striking out in 34.9% of his plate appearances, his exorbitant exit velocities served as an indicator of enormous power potential. Despite a pedestrian slash line of .223/.294/.450, the 6-foot-7, 220-pounder finished with 34 extra-base hits, including 17 home runs, and 54 RBIs in 87 games.
“To be honest with you, that was a goal. That was a personal goal of mine, to break the Statcast numbers,” Cruz said Wednesday through translator Mike Gonzalez. “That’s something I’m going to continue to challenge myself in. I want to be a unique player. I want to do things that no one else is doing. I want to be able stand out. More than anything, I want to be dominant with who I am, as a ballplayer, at my position and what I bring to the team.”
1. Record pace
Cruz was on pace to hit 32 homers and 101 RBIs over a full season, which would have smashed Josh Bell’s team rookie home run record (26, in 2017).
Fellow rookie Jack Suwinski had 19 home runs in 106 games, a 29-homer pace.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton, a former hitting coach for Cleveland and Tampa Bay, doesn’t like to extrapolate such numbers, knowing hitters experience ebbs and flows over 162 games and that Cruz fell shy of breaking the rookie strikeout record (129, by Jason Bay in 2004) in just over half a season.
Then again, when Cruz smashed a 122.4-mph single off the top of the Clemente Wall against Atlanta on Aug. 24 at PNC Park, it put him above the likes of New York Yankees sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.
“But it’s hard not to also look at projections and look at how hard he hits the ball and the growth that we’ve seen in just his ability to swing at strikes over the last month,” Shelton said. “That’s extremely encouraging. Those are the things that we have to build on because no one hits the ball as hard as he does, or maybe one guy in the game hits the ball as hard as he does. So I think you can look at those and see if you continue to see the the lines or the lines of growth in terms of the swing decisions that, you know, he’s going to put up big numbers.”
How big? Cruz wasn’t shy about setting the bar high.
“I feel like I can do even more,” Cruz said, before being prodded for numbers. “Many more home runs than 30, many more RBIs than what you considered and, more than anything, just a way better batting average.”
2. Saving face
Cruz was asked about becoming the face of a franchise that hasn’t had a star since Andrew McCutchen was traded to San Francisco in January 2018.
That’s where Cruz, whose confidence is obvious, showed some humility. He knows he needs to improve defensively to stay at shortstop and to boost his batting average to become an All-Star.
“I would love to be the face of this franchise, but I also understand I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Cruz said. “I’ve got to work hard, and I’ve got to continue working hard for that.”
Would the Pirates signing Cruz, who turned 24 on Tuesday, to a long-term contract help the way it did with 25-year-old third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes being considered a cornerstone?
“I don’t think a contract has much say-so in that,” Cruz said. “At the end of the day, as a ballplayer, my mindset is just to work hard and be able to gain and earn that position as the face of the franchise because of my work and not so much because of a contract.”
3. Gold Glove race
Shelton took a moment to stump for Hayes for the NL Gold Glove, given his metrics are the best of any player at his position.
That includes Nolan Arenado of the St. Louis Cardinals.
They both committed 12 errors, but Hayes leads all major leaguers with 24 defensive runs saved (Arenado has 19 DRS) and ranks first among third basemen with 18 outs above average (Arenado has a 14 OAA).
Arenado, however, has won nine consecutive NL Gold Glove awards and remains an elite defender so it’s not a given that Hayes will unseat him.
“It’s really hard. It’s hard to change that narrative,” Shelton said. “I think the difference in changing that narrative is if there’s a huge gap. The guy down there is really, really good. Unfortunately, we get to see that a lot being in our division. So that narrative is hard to change. I can have a personal opinion on where he stands, but I understand all that because you don’t win nine Gold Gloves in a row without being really talented, and Nolan’s really talented.”
Shelton was asked to make a case for Hayes, based on what he means to the Pirates’ defense, and focused on his footwork.
“I think he makes a lot of plays that people take for granted that are routine that are really hard plays,” Shelton said. “Some of that we can metrically prove and some of it is just by watching the way he moves his feet and the things he does that I don’t think that everybody realizes how difficult plays are. It’s basically the hops he creates. The good infielders create good hops. There’s a lot of times that he does that on balls that shouldn’t have good hops.”
4. Familiar space
Shelton wanted to get a look at speedy rookie Ji Hwan Bae, who played primarily second base and shortstop in the minors, at center field in the final 10 games.
When Shelton approached Bryan Reynolds about playing in left field again, he wasn’t surprised to hear Reynolds “had no issue with it.” Reynolds played left Tuesday against the Cardinals, his first start there since April 21, 2021.
“I’m fine with it,” Reynolds said before Wednesday’s season finale. “I felt really good in left. I felt kind of like I was back at home. I haven’t been there in awhile, and I’ve played a lot of games out there. I felt really comfortable out there.”
Reynolds started 256 games in center over the past two seasons and was a Gold Glove finalist last season. But he produced a minus-13 DRS and a minus-7 OAA this year, which both ranked among the lowest of players at the position.
“We view him as a center fielder going forward. We view him next year, depending on our personnel, being our center fielder,” Shelton said, though he didn’t rule out Reynolds playing left.
“I think you see a lot of center fielders in today’s game bounce to different spots. And he has the ability to do that. I think it’s important that we still value him as a center fielder but knowing that he can go play in that corner — he’s really good there — so we will continue to have him do both.”
5. Making a case
Reynolds sounded like someone who would welcome the move back to left field.
Pirates first base/outfield coach Tarrik Brock once predicted he could win a Gold Glove like Starling Marte (2015-16) and Corey Dickerson (2018) did before Reynolds reached the majors.
“The cliche is, you’ve got the big notch and all of that, but I just felt like I was reading balls better in left than I was in center,” Reynolds said. “I felt the opposite when I started in center. I felt like I was reading them better there.”
Shelton has called Reynolds the Pirates’ best player and their “gold standard” for effort as their winner of the Heart and Hustle Award, and factored his health into consideration.
“Playing center field is a grind in the major leagues,” Shelton said. “I mean, you look throughout baseball and you look at the overall health of guys who have done it throughout a full season, it’s extremely challenging. It takes a lot out of you. That’s why I think I appreciate the way Bryan plays every day. Because center field is probably one of the hardest positions because you’re moving on every pitch. And it’s admirable the way he continues to play.”
Reynolds also led the Pirates in home runs (27) and RBIs (62), but his WAR dropped from 6.0 last year to 3.0 this season, so it’s possible playing center took a physical toll.
It’s possible the Pirates would like to put Reynolds and Suwinski — their top two home run hitters — in the corners and open up center field for someone speedy like Bae.
Shelton sounded open to keeping the outfield fluid, given that Reynolds, Suwinski and Bae are capable of playing center. When asked which corner he preferred Suwinski — who started 46 games in left field and 34 in right — Shelton didn’t rule out center.
Shelton noted the third deck in major-league ballparks can be daunting for outfielders to track fly balls but credited Suwinski for being “fearless.”
“I like Jack in all three,” Shelton said. “If you look at it, Jack is a kid that has become a better outfielder in the big leagues — and you normally don’t see that.”
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.
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