The Pittsburgh Pirates have acquired Miami Marlins outfielder Bryan De La Cruz, according to Jon Heyman. Mark Feinsand reports that RHP Jun-Seok Shim is part of the return to Miami. Craig Mish of the Miami Herald says that infielder Garret Forrester is also going in the deal.
De La Cruz is in his age-27 season, with three more years of control beyond this season. The right-handed hitter is batting .245/.289/.417 with 18 homers this season. Power is the main part of his game, with league-average overall offense.
On the field, De La Cruz has horrible range, but an elite arm. He has spent more time in left field with Miami, but would be a better fit in the smaller right field at PNC Park, allowing his arm strength to play up.
The downside for De La Cruz, offensively, is that he’s been a power-only bat, with a low average and on-base percentage. He swings the bat an above-average 53.7% of the time, including a 31.2% chase rate, which is higher than the league average of 28.3%. In the zone, he swings 74.8% of the time, which is well above the 65.9% league average. He makes average contact on chase swings, but is below-average at making contact inside the zone.
The Andy Haines approach on offense in Pittsburgh hasn’t been productive, but hitters under the Pirates’ hitting coach have a trend of swinging less and narrowing their focus in the zone. This could be a good thing for De La Cruz, to help him eliminate some of the bad swings that lead to his above-average 13.9% swinging strike rate.
Overall, De La Cruz isn’t an impact bat, but he’s a power hitter who is under team control for three more years, with a league-minimum salary this season.
Jun-Seok Shim is a 6′ 4″, 215 pound right-hander from Korea who signed for $750,000 in January 2023. He’s a big time arm, but has only pitched eight innings, due to injuries. He’s been out this year with a shoulder issue, related to last year’s thoracic muscle injury. In his eight innings in the FCL, Shim had a 3.38 ERA and 13 strikeouts.
Garret Forrester was drafted by the Pirates in the third round last year out of Oregon State. The Pirates were converting the corner infielder to catcher in Single-A Bradenton. He lacks power on offense, but excels at pitch selection and swing decisions, leading to a .273/.413/.382 line this season.
The return for De La Cruz doesn’t break the bank. In my latest prospect rankings update, Shim was ranked 24th in the system, down from the top 20 in my pre-season look. Forrester was ranked 50th in the system. Neither were expected to reach the majors until 2027 or later.
UPDATE 6:43 PM: The Pirates have officially announced the move as Shim and Forrester for De La Cruz.
