Pittsburgh Pirates’ Oneil Cruz Has Lofty Goals For 2023

Oneil Cruz is aiming high in 2023, fitting for a young man who is 6-foot-7.

The Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop says he wants to hit at least 30 home runs and steal at least 30 home runs in what should be his first full major-league season. The 24-year-old won’t even rule out the possibility of 40 homers and 40 steals.

Considering just four players in major league history have had a 40/40 season, it is a lofty goal.

Cruz is a freakishly good athlete with enough athleticism to play shortstop at his size. His long limbs help him produce above-average power and speed.

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There is often a delicate balance between setting lofty and realistic goals, However, Pirates manager Derek Shelton doesn’t want to dampen Cruz’s aspirations.

“Well, I think, No. 1, we’re dealing with a confident kid,” Shelton said. “Putting actual number goals — there’s so many other factors that come into play that it’s not really fair, but the one thing that is encouraging is he’s going into the year with things on his mind that he wants to accomplish.

“To be able to accomplish those things, he has to hit some milestones. He has to control the zone better and he has to get on base if he’s going to be able to do that. Getting to the process of that is where we’ll spend our time, and then what happens, we’ll see what happens.”

As a rookie last season, he had 17 home runs and 10 stolen bases in 87 games after beginning the year at Triple-A Indianapolis. He also hit .233/.294/.450 while striking out 126 times in 361 plate appearances.

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Shelton, though, is correct when he says Cruz is going to show a lot of improvement over his intriguing rookie season to reach 30/30.

Cruz’s on-base percentage is just .295 in the relatively small sample size of 89 career games in the big leagues. The adage about not being able to steal first base holds true, even with Major League Baseball switching to bags the size of pizza boxes this season.

Cruz’s propensity for strikeouts makes it hard for him to have a good OBP. He has whiffed 130 times in just 370 plate appearances.

Yet Cruz has shown just enough results to dream about a 40/40 season. He has 18 career homers and 10 steals, which average out to 33 and 18 over a 162-game season.

“I don’t think we want to put any number goals on anything because there’s so many other factors that come into play, but we are dealing with a kid that’s extremely talented,” Shelton said. “There’s only been four guys that have done this, so let’s not start anointing anything, and let’s focus on that process.”

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The process of improving his strike zone discipline will continue for Cruz this spring. He felt he made strides in that aspect of the game in the latter part of last season.

“It all comes with experience,” Cruz said. “At the beginning of the season, I was swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. I tried to do too much. Then through the season, as the games went on, I started becoming more of a big-league player and started making adjustments, not swinging at pitches out of the strike zone as much. That gave me success at the end of the season.”