MLB analyst sounds alarm on Pirates’ Oneil Cruz’s lack of effort as major concern in long haul

The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to slump this season, and they could use all the help they can get. However, star shortstop Oneil Cruz's "energy and effort" did the opposite on Tuesday.

Oneil Cruz was removed from Tuesday's game against the Milwaukee Brewers after the Pirates shortstop seemingly slowed down on a scoring opportunity. leading to a double play to end the seventh inning.

While Cruz acknowledged his mistake, saying he thought they were two outs in the inning, MLB analyst Dalton Feely sounded alarm bells on the incident, reminding his defensive error against the Texas Rangers on Friday. He said on "Baseball Today" on Wednesday (7:00 onwards):

"I'm mad at Oneil Cruz, and I think the biggest reason why it's a little bit of a boy who cried Wolf, and I'm not saying O'Neil Cruz lied about forgetting how many outs there were in a situation thinking there was two outs when he hit that ground ball thought the flip would end the inning, but we've kind of seen O'Neil Cruz have some effort issues in the past too.

"I think Don Kelly at this point is gotta lay down the law... There are so many minor leaguers who would crave to be in the spot Oneil Cruz is, so I get he's physically gifted, but that said, play your heart out."

Pirates interim manager Don Kelly pulled Oneil Cruz from the eighth inning and replaced him with outfielder Alexander Canario in center field.

Oneil Cruz backs Pirates manager for pulling him from Brewers game

Following the 9-3 loss, Oneil Cruz acknowledged his mistake and backed the manager's decision to pull him from the game.

“I accepted it really well,” Cruz said. "Just because we have two guys here, [Andrew] McCutchen and Tommy Pham, who are really good examples. They always run hard, they always go out there [and give] their 100 percent, and that's a teaching point for me. I accepted it the way DK came to me and explained and presented it.”

The Pirates shorststop had a strong start to the season but his form has declined over the last two months. Cruz is batting .205 with 13 home runs after the series finale against the Brewers.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

Know More

Edited by Chaitanya Prakash