A Light on the Allegheny
Credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
The Los Angeles Dodgers had to become the island of misfit toys to become contenders. Yes, they could afford and find marquee players in the draft and free agency. Look no further than Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Corey Seager, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman.
But these are the conventional decisions a club makes. The first-rounders selected, the generational talent traded for, and the free agents signed. But the Dodgers had to do more than that. They had to find baseball's bargains and excel at the unconventional.
So the Dodgers found success in the margins. They signed future All-Stars Justin Turner and Max Muncy off the scrap heap and to minor-league deals. They traded for undervalued minor leaguers Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez, then turned them into underappreciated big leaguers.
This match of conventionality and unconventionality bred success. That success earned the Dodgers the title of baseball's smartest; the most forward-thinking franchise in the sport. It's infallible prince.
That crown has remained perched, but unbeknownst until now, it slipped when the Dodgers during the 2017 trade deadline.
Then, the Dodgers were an MLB-best 74-31 with a 14-game lead in their division. Yet they felt the need to bolster their bullpen with another arm.
In steps, former All-Star reliever Tony Watson of the Pittsburgh Pirates with his 3.66 earned run average (ERA) in 47 games pitched. Watson fit into the Dodgers stable, helping them reach the World Series while pitching to a 2.70 ERA in the regular season and a 2.57 postseason ERA.
Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, the Pirates finished fourth in the National League Central for the first time in five years. Their only consolation prize for parting with arguably their best reliever? Pitcher Angel German and an unknown shortstop named Oneil Cruz.
In the five years since Cruz has blossomed from the unknown. With each passing season, the 6’7 shortstop has ascended into and climbed MLB.com, Baseball America, and Baseball Prospectus’s top 100 prospect rankings.
But Cruz is no longer a prospect. He’s a Pirate. And with every pitch he powers into the outfield with inhuman strength and every impossible throw he makes with unmistakable ease, Cruz sends a message. He is here to stay. He is the light bursting out of a rebuild.
At first glance, those descriptives read as an exaggeration to adorn Cruz’s achievements as something other than what they are.
They’re not.
In the third inning of his season debut, Cruz rocketed a 96.7 mile-per-hour (MPH) throw to first base that moved so fast the camera operator almost it. That 96.7 MPH is the fastest throw by an infielder in the National or American League all season. This is an otherworldly feat, but for Cruz, it was his first throw of the night.
For added perspective on this insanity, Cruz’s throw to first was faster than the average velocity of Nathan Eovaldi, Zack Wheeler, and Josh Hader’s fastball.
During the same inning, Cruz came up to the plate with the bases loaded. The 23-year-old hit a bases-clearing double off his bat at 112.9 MPH, making it the hardest ball hit by any Pirates player this season.
Cruz’s sprint speed on the double also ranked as one of the three fastest recorded by a Pirates player yet this season. In other words, Cruz did two things in one game his teammates hadn’t in the 71 games before his promotion.
Also, at 6’7, Cruz is the tallest shortstop in MLB history.
While Cruz may be the first salvo of hope fired from Pittsburgh’s rebuild, he isn’t the first or the last. Cruz joins Ke’Bryan Hayes, who leads the team in wins-above-replacement (WAR) in his second full season, as a potential pillar of the franchise’s future.
Atop that, according to MLB.com, the club has five other top 100 prospects. With three top-45 picks in next month’s draft, a sixth and seventh could be on the way.
Cruz may be the latest face but make no mistake. For the first time since Andrew McCutchen roamed the outfield at PNC Park, the Pirates have a path back to contention.
