Jason Mackey: Home Run Derby was fun. Now it's on Oneil Cruz and the Pirates to truly take the next step.

Jason Mackey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jul 15, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PITTSBURGH — In addition to hot dogs, rain delays or keeping score, an essential part of baseball has always been appreciating nuance, a swift baserunning decision or keeping the double play in order, a smart sequence of pitches or a solid two-strike approach.

We've lost our appreciative and understanding minds when it comes to Oneil Cruz.

Not that Cruz is a situational superstar because he's most certainly not. It's more about the need to feel a certain way, to make up our minds whether that determination squares with reality or not.

A lesson that we all should've learned watching Cruz participate in Monday's Home Run Derby at Truist Park in Atlanta: Enjoy the show.

In the micro, that meant the 513-foot bomb that left the stadium, a 21-homer first round and five blasts traveling least 487 feet. Is it real baseball? Of course not. But it sure was fun.

The macro with Cruz remains the world outside of glorified batting practice, an event that has long been in his wheelhouse. The occasional issues with effort. Defensive shortcomings. Poor decision-making on the bases.

Much like Monday, there's a bunch to see with Cruz. And the best should be yet to come. After a taste in the Home Run Derby, it would be a real shame if Cruz and the Pirates couldn't figure out how to make this trip a yearly thing.

In the meantime, much like those poor kids in the outfield on Monday, try to keep your head on a swivel with Cruz.

Appreciate the immense power and ridiculous potential, as well as the numbers Cruz has amassed so far. Expect more consistent effort, smoother defense and smarter baserunning decisions, and realize that, no, he's neither perfect nor a finished product.

In other words, see nuance.

(By the way, calling Cruz a "bad" baserunner isn't fair. He's tied for second in MLB in steals with 29 and has been caught just four times. That's very good. The same for his mark of baserunning runs above average, per FanGraphs: 3.8, 14th in MLB. His problem remains those random bad decisions.)

But the entire Cruz argument is a wild one. It has people citing batting average as a determinative statistic. Others have deemed a 26-year-old ineligible for improvement. The most illogical are the calls to trade Cruz.

Why? To instead play whom?

Relax, please. I know Cruz has flaws. My eyeballs work, I swear. But the entire experience, introduced to a larger audience Monday, has netted a few important lessons of my own:

— The frustration Cruz elicits often stems from the Pirates' organization-wide shortcomings.

— It's tied to the potential that passionate fans — good people who just want to see a winner — believe he can reach but for myriad reasons has not yet.

— Like most of us when we get angry, it comes out in the darnedest ways.

Here's where I'm at with Cruz: We saw Monday night a taste of what Cruz could become — the potential, the magnetic smile, the star power. It's why you don't trade him. It's also why I disagree with the assertion that something like this would go to his head.

It might.

But what if that happened in a positive way, like if Cruz became addicted to this sort of shine and attention? That's not a bad thing.

The next step for Cruz and the Pirates must be getting back to the Home Run Derby and MLB All-Star Game ... but for real this time, not as a gimmick participant because nobody else wanted to do it and instead as a starter for the National League.

It'll be a failure on both sides if that doesn't happen, and we saw some interesting perspective in the semifinals of the derby.

Cal Raleigh has maybe been the best story in MLB during the first half due to his 38 home runs and ridiculous "Big Dumper" nickname. But have you ever looked at the Seattle catcher's first few years in the league?

It's nearly identical to Cruz.

Raleigh through age 26: 311 MLB games, .217 average, .735 OPS, 59 home runs, 116 extra-base hits and 6.7 wins above replacement, per Baseball Reference.

Cruz through age 26: 329 MLB games, .240 average, .756 OPS, 56 home runs, 124 extra-base, 6.3 bWAR.

If Raleigh made that jump from very good to superstardom, there should be nothing stopping Cruz from doing the same.

As much as we talk about the Pirates' clock with Paul Skenes or the need to increase payroll — both fair — solving the Cruz problem isn't talked about enough. The Pirates have what we saw Monday on their roster and haven't gotten enough out of it. I won't disagree with that.

But please don't tell me Cruz is a lost cause, can't develop, stinks because his batting average is low, or whatever other ridiculous take that has come out because he seems to make some baseball dinosaurs uncomfortable.

See the nuance.

You just might wind up seeing a star, too.

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