PITTSBURGH PIRATES TOP 10 PROSPECTS
1. ONEIL CRUZ, SS
AGE: 23. B-T: L-R. HT: 6-7. WT: 210. SIGNED: Dominican Republic, 2015. SIGNED BY: Patrick Guerrero/Franklin Taveras/Bob Engle (Dodgers).
TRACK RECORD: Cruz tests the imagination of evaluators and scouts alike. He’s something of a baseball unicorn as a 6-foot-7 shortstop, inviting annual skepticism that a position change is necessary. Yet the immensely talented Cruz continues to stave off such a decision. He spent most of 2021 manning shortstop at Double-A Altoona, where his .530 slugging percentage ranked ninth-best among all hitters in his league with 200 or more plate appearances. Cruz missed nearly seven weeks with a forearm injury, but made a brief stop in Triple-A upon returning before his big league debut.
Cruz boasts a treasure trove of plus power, speed and throwing ability with a legitimate chance to stick on the dirt. He possesses otherworldly raw power, generating elite exit velocities via the leverage created by his long limbs. Cruz already owns the Pirates’ record for exit velocity in the Statcast era—a 118.2 mph single in his debut—and is capable of producing 30-homer seasons perennially in his peak. He’ll always battle swing-and-miss, which is sometimes exacerbated by his aggressive approach. He walked just 7.2% of the time with Double-A Altoona in 2021 and tactful pitchers mindful of sequencing can exploit both the inherent length to his swing and his eagerness. One evaluator noted there are times pitchers can catch Cruz guessing while hunting specific pitches, but he showed an ability to make adjustments in
