Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz left Sunday’s game with an apparent injury to his left leg after a collision at the plate.
In the bottom of the sixth, Cruz was trying to score from third on a Ke’Bryan Hayes grounder and was called out after running into White Sox catcher Seby Zavala. Cruz was on the ground in obvious pain afterwards and had to be helped off the field. The play sparked a benches-clearing brawl between the teams as on-deck hitter Carlos Santana exchanged heated words with Zavala in the aftermath.
The brawl might result in some discipline from the league in the coming days, but the bigger story is Cruz, whose left foot jammed awkwardly into the ground on his slide attempt. More will be known on Cruz’s injury after the game, and for now the shortstop and the Pirates can only hope a serious injury has been avoided.
Cruz is one of the cornerstones of the Bucs’ rebuilding process, as he went from top prospect to promising rookie in a 2022 season that saw him hit .233/.294/.450 with 17 homers over 361 plate appearances. It was enough to earn Cruz a sixth-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting, and while his defense and his contact skills are still a work in progress, there’s obviously a very high ceiling given Cruz’s speed, power and ability to make hard contact. Entering Sunday’s game, Cruz had a .267/.378/.400 slash line in his first 37 PA of the 2023 season, with one home run and a much more respectable 21.6% strikeout rate.
If Cruz does end up missing time, Rodolfo Castro or Ji Hwan Bae are the likeliest candidates to take over at shortstop. Since that duo has been splitting time at second base and Bae has also seen some time in center field, Pittsburgh would likely call up a versatile infielder like Mark Mathias, Tucupita Marcano or Chris Owings to fill the void, though promoting Owings would require addinghim to the 40-man roster.
