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Pirates Will Reportedly Call Up Oneil Cruz and Bligh Madris

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According to multiple sources, the Pittsburgh Pirates plan to recall Oneil Cruz from Indianapolis and add outfielder Bligh Madris to the 40-man/26-man roster tomorrow. Cruz played two games in the majors last year, while the 26-year-old Madris will be making his big league debut.

Cruz started this year off horribly, both on offense and defense, but he has picked it up until having a down week this current week, going 4-for-20 with a double and two walks. He was our Player of the Week last week for the system, and he’s had an .866 OPS since the start of May. On the year he is hitting .232/.326/.422 in 55 games, with nine homers and 11 steals in 17 attempts.

Madris did a great job for the Pirates during Spring Training this year before being a late cut, then went down to Indianapolis and put up the best numbers on the team, hitting .304/.385/.519 in 46 games. He currently ranks seventh in the International League in OPS. Ji-hwan Bae is the only other player on Indianapolis among the top 40 hitters in the league, and he ranks 17th.

More on these reported moves tomorrow once they become official.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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