Morning Rundown: Oneil Cruz will not return in 2023
Cruz hasn't played since April 9
What seemed to always be the expected outcome, it was made official on Tuesday that Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz will not be returning in 2023.
Out since April 9 after fracturing his ankle on a collision at home plate, Cruz had a setback recently and based on where there were at in the season, the writing was all over the wall.
In nine games this season, Cruz had one home run and three stolen bases, and showed a little more restraint at the plate when it came to chasing.
During his rookie season in 2022, he picked up 17 home runs and 34 extra-base hits across 361 plates appearances.
The Pirates had to scramble throughout the season to fill the playing time that was left vacated, and have seemed to settle on a combination of Liover Peguero and Alika Williams at the moment.
Cruz will now enter 2024 at 25-years-old with just 98 games played at the major league level and 410 plate appearances, although he’s hit 19 home runs in that span.
Quinn Priester added to taxi squad
It looks like the Pirates 2019 first round pick, Quinn Priester, will be getting another opportunity after working on some things at Triple-A Indianapolis, as he was added to the taxi squad on Tuesday.
The performance, at least on the score sheet, has looked a lot better for Priester in his most recent go-around in Indianapolis.
In four games, Priester has struck out 32 batters (38.1 K%) in 20.1 innings pitched, posting a 2.66 ERA and has held hitters to a .186 average, while seeing some of his velocity return to his fastball/sinker.
He’s gone sinker heavy back in Indianapolis, which isn’t always a recipe for swings and misses at the major league level, and will still have to show he can throw strikes (14.3 BB% since returning to Triple-A), but it was certainly a step in the right direction.
Minor League recap 9/12
Indianapolis Indians - 6 vs Omaha Storm Chasers - 10
Top Hitter - Matt Gorski: 2-4, HR (1), 2B, R, 2 RBI
Top Pitcher - Roansy Contreras: 4.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
Altoona Curve - 3 vs Akron RubberDucks -2
Top Hitter - Connor Scott: 1-4, RBI, 2B
Top Pitcher - Justin Meis: 3 IP, 2 H, BB, 3 K
Tough situation for Oneil Cruz and the Pirates. It will be interesting to see if the Pirates give their authorization for him to play in the DWL. My hope is that they do not and that his off-season is filled with getting physically prepared for ST 2024. He's behind schedule in his rehab and no need to rush anything at this point.
Tough decision for Top Hitter in the AAA game, with Gorski and Gonzales both having HR's and doubles in the game but Gorski gets the edge with 2 RBI to Gonzo's 1 RBI. And, the complete opposite in AA with the Curve only getting 3 hits, but Connor Scott had an RBI with his hit. Still waiting for Scott to get it all together with the bat. Still only 23, but much more improvement was expected this year repeating AA.
Roansy averaged under 92 with his fastball again on only 75 pitches.
To be fair, his changeup is so close to indistinguishable from his fastball that StatCast may have misclassified some.
What do you even do with his at this point.