Pirates manager Derek Shelton made some big headlines today when he told reporters that the team plans to move shortstop Oneil Cruz to the outfield.

With Nick Gonzales returning to the active roster today (along with Jared Jones), he will reclaim the second base spot, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa will take over at shortstop.

Cruz, meanwhile, will go to center field, Shelton says. When asked follow up questions, Shelton said this is a permanent move, with the organization believing that his athleticism will adapt to center in due time.

Shelton said that Cruz was receptive to the switch, which slightly contradicts the sentiment Pirates general manager Ben Cherington expressed, when he said that Cruz was disappointed about the move but handled it professionally.

This is a move that a sizable chunk of Pirates fans have wanted for a long time. The debate between moving him to an outfield role or keeping him at shortstop has been a fierce one in town ever since Cruz broke into the major leagues.

Although most of the time advocates for relocating Cruz say he should be moved to right field, perhaps the Pirates feel that eventually Cruz’s speed and long stride can help him in the middle. Besides that, center field is by far the biggest question mark for the Pirates as they look ahead to 2025.

It’s been a rough season for Cruz at shortstop. He makes the highlight, 95+ miles per hour throws to first base, but he has 24 total errors at the position and is a -9 in defensive runs saved. Both of those metrics are among the worst in baseball at his position.

The argument to keep him as your starting shortstop has been getting harder and harder to make, but the Pirates need to find a way to keep his bat somewhere in the lineup. The power bat is currently only behind Bryan Reynolds in home runs, with 18.

It will be a completely new experience for Cruz, who has never played center field at any level of baseball during his professional baseball career. He has played incredibly sparingly in left field, though, and not all that long ago.

When he was still in Triple-A during the 2022 season, Cruz made 10 appearances for Indianapolis as a left fielder, starting 9 of those games and totaling 80.0 innings at the position. He made 20 putouts in 22 chances, with a pair of errors.

The 6′ 7 giant also played a single inning of major league ball in left field. That also came during the 2022 season, after he was called up to Pittsburgh.

In the ninth inning of an August 16th matchup against the Boston Red Sox, Pirates manager Derek Shelton had made a total of seven defensive switches (not including the pitching change). Virtually everyone on the field was either subbed out ot switched, and in the ensuing chaos, Cruz was temporarily parked in left field.

Other than that trio of batters he watched from afar, Cruz has never played a game at the major league level in the outfield, let alone at center. And chances are we will have to wait a little bit to actually see it take place.

It sounds as though Cruz will temporarily be the designated hitter, allowing him and his .265/.324/.468 slash line to still get in the batting order, while he ramps up the reps he receives as the team’s new center fielder.

It’s definitely a new idea, one that the Pirates felt was the right to explore. The addition of Kiner-Falefa really made this more possible, allowing Pittsburgh to not sacrifice a good bat at the shortstop position. Sure, the Pirates have other players who can play the position (Jared Triolo and Alika Williams, and in that order), but you do not want either of those guys playing every day.

IKF is exactly the kind of player you want playing every day, and even though the utility man has outfield experience, the Pirates went with the Cruz experiment anyways.

However, it’s always an inherent risk to put someone like Cruz, who has an ankle injury history and has never played center field at any level of his career, in that position, especially if it’s not one he expressly requested.

This move also further solidifies the belief that Michael A. Taylor’s time with the Pirates is over. The team placed him on outright waivers yesterday, and if no team claims him it was speculated that the team would go a step further and put him on release waivers, with the purpose of formally releasing him and letting him be a free agent.

That seems much more certain now, if the Pirates plan to see Cruz in center field at all down the stretch this season.

It should definitely be interesting when it finally does happen in an in-game scenario. I’d love to know your thoughts.

This article was updated to reflect the Pirates official roster moves regarding Nick Gonzales.

(Featured photo by Matt Freed/AP)