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The Pittsburgh Pirates sure do miss Oneil Cruz. The winning vibes from earlier in the season are gone as the team resumes its rebuilding ways and looks to finish out this season with improvements from their key young player.
Cruz hasn’t taken the field since April due to an ankle injury on a slide into home plate. The good news is that, according to Alex Stumpf of DK Pittsburgh Sports, Cruz has finally begun a formal running program, which suggests he could make rehab appearances in the minor leagues at some point this season. Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk explained that the medical team decided to play things more carefully Cruz.
“There was just a collaborative read on the medical performance team that to potentially avoid any further soft tissue injuries up or down the kinetic chain, although you can't go much further down, that we decided to take it a little bit slower,” Tomczyk said, via DK Pittsburgh Sports. “So nothing happened that his body signaled he can't handle, it was more of a collaborative effort that we all got together, notably with Oneil, like ‘Hey look, here's where we're going to need to take this a little bit, a step differently and not rush to that projection date because we want to make sure when you come back, you're back and you feel, as a baseline, like yourself.’”
Although Cruz could use all the playing time he can get to develop his game, it's wise to avoid the risk of worsening his injury. This late in the season, the Pirates' fate of another missed postseason is just about written. The long-term view is important here, though that isn’t to say Cruz should be shut down right now. If he can get back to full form before the season ends and head into the offseason ready to work, that would be great for Pittsburgh.
One of the hardest-hitting, fastest and biggest shortstops in the game, the 24-year-old Oneil Cruz is one of the Pirates' most important players — their leadoff hitter of the next great Pittsburgh team if all goes well.
