Below is a recap of Wednesday’s winter league action for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Dominican Republic
Oneil Cruz appears to be done for the winter. There are mixed signals on what really happened with Cruz, including Cruz telling a Dominican reporter that he’s not injured.
The Pirates noted yesterday that he will get some issue looked at (reports say it was an ankle sprain, while others just say soreness or swelling). His GM in the Dominican said last night that he thinks Cruz is done for the winter, saying yesterday it was just minor soreness.
If that’s true, Cruz barely saw action, due in part to a late start, but he also had the flu, dental work and the current ankle issue. He hit .250 with a .792 OPS in 12 games, with a double, two homers, four steals and a 7:13 BB/SO ratio in 49 plate appearances.
It’s an unfortunate winter for him, as he had a chance to play shortstop daily and face some strong pitching this winter in the Dominican. In his next to last game, he had four at-bats against a combined group of three current MLB pitchers.
This year in the Dominican was probably the best group of pitchers in one winter league that I’ve ever seen, with a majority of the innings being thrown by pitchers with MLB experience.
Puerto Rico
Tsung-Che Cheng went 0-for-5 with a run scored. He’s having trouble against the more advanced pitching in Puerto Rico, hitting .167 with a .493 OPS in 12 games, with a double, triple and four walks.
Josh Palacios went 2-for-4 with a triple, walk, two runs and two RBIs. He has a .256 average and an .819 OPS in 11 games, with four extra-base hits and six walks.
Colombia
Andres Alvarez went 3-for-6 with three runs, two singles, a homer and an RBI. He’s now hitting .369 with a 1.082 OPS in 29 games. Alvarez is making a triple crown run. He is third in the league in average, just three points behind the leader. He’s second with seven homers, one behind the leader. He leads the league with 34 RBIs.
Rodolfo Nolasco went 1-for-3 with three walks and a run scored. He’s hitting .236 with a .763 OPS in 26 games.
Francisco Acuna went 0-for-3 with a walk. He’s hitting .217 with a .699 OPS in 28 games.
Mexico
Denny Roman allowed two hits without recording an out, but he didn’t give up any runs. He still has an 0.66 ERA in 13.2 innings over 13 appearances.
Fabricio Macias had an 0-for-4 night. He’s hitting .257 in 54 games, with 14 doubles, two triples and a homer. His .664 OPS is one point above league average.
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.
Is cruz the next head case in baseball?
He’s had a wild winter for someone who has played 12 games. He had a salary dispute, which I had no idea was a thing for winter ball. I’ve never heard that before. I thought guys in his situation use it to get better and the money they pay there is pocket change compared to what he made in the majors for 3 1/2 months.
He made promises that “he would be there for day one of the season and play all winter at shortstop” which were unrealistic (and him not being there at the start had nothing to do with the salary delay). He attacked the fans of another team during his first interview out of nowhere. Then he misses time with three different things and the last one is shrouded in mystery still despite being (at worst) very minor. I feel like I talked about him 50 different times because he was always in the local Dominican news.
That’s a wild winter. Compare it to Rodolfo Castro and he just showed up and played, then left when his season was over. The end. The only thing crazy that Castro did was really overdo a home run celebration during a testy time in the league and then get plunked for it, but he took the inevitable HBP and nothing happened. I’m sure he knew it was coming. Winter ball has been wild for excessive celebration paybacks this year.
So he is ahead case?
Maybe we should trade him asap.
I’d say there’s zero chance of that. Most fans don’t care. They wanted him up in the majors this year when he was literally the worst hitter (by OPS) among qualified hitters in the International League after four weeks. I saw every excuse in the book on why he was struggling, no one cared. The guy got benched two weeks before he came up for lack of effort and he still came up anyway. Zero chance he’s going anywhere.
He still seems like a huge bust risk to me. Am I crazy? Wouldn’t a smart team like Tampa trade off the hype?
I’ve said this plenty of times to people asking about him. He could finish 2023 with -0.8 WAR or 8.0 WAR and neither would surprise me one bit. I can easily see a path for both, or anything in between those numbers. It’s all up to him.
Sounds like closer to the bad outcome given his winter ball shenanigans
meh
he´ll still hit 45 home runs next year and have 24 errors
17 HR and 17 E last season lol, how many homers would you want knowing he will have that many errors (if they were to be a guaranteed 1:1)?
this schdict with winner ball reps at shortstop has shortened his leash at the position from August to June (contigent on progress of nick and peguero)
First.