According to Kevin Gorman, Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz underwent surgery last night on his fractured left ankle suffered in Sunday’s game against the Chicago White Sox.
Gorman and other media members are reporting that Cruz could be out 10-12 weeks with the injury, which would put him out at least through mid-June. It’s unclear whether that estimate would be his return to the Pirates, or return to field. He’s going to need rehab games before he returns. The true timeline will be known as he begins to rehab and get into game shape. He was hitting .250/.375/.375 through nine games at the time of the injury.
The Pirates will place Cruz on the injured list today to open up a spot on the 26-man roster ahead of their game against the Houston Astros tonight at PNC Park. More on that news later.
UPDATE:
The Pittsburgh Pirates issued an update and it’s not as optimistic as the 10-12 week timetable. Here’s the press release from the team:
From Pirates Director of Sports Medicine, Todd Tomczyk:
Oneil Cruz had surgery last evening at Allegheny General Hospital by Dr. Greg Altman and Dr. Darren Frank. The surgery stabilized the fractured fibula and addressed the injury to the syndesmosis. The Pirates anticipate a return to action in four months.
That initial news had him returning to action possibly between mid-June and early July. Now we are talking about him returning no earlier than mid-August. He’s going to require rehab games once he does return to the field. The longer he misses, the longer the rehab game process will take.
The Pirates now have a need to find a long(er)-term replacement at shortstop.
UPDATE #2
Jason Mackey confirms that the four months estimate would be his time back to Pittsburgh. So it’s possible that the initial timeline wasn’t far off, but it was only talking about him returning to full baseball activities, which would occur before actual rehab games
The reaction to Oneil Cruz certainly stinks. Huge bummer for the Pirates. But a point of clarity: The four-month timeline is getting back to Pittsburgh, returning to MLB games. That isn’t the start of a rehab assignment. Have seen/heard assumptions of the latter.
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) April 10, 2023
