PITTSBURGH — The Pirates were right to send Jack Suwinski back to the minors last week. He was overmatched at the plate. An 0-for-29 slide had dropped his batting average to .198 and his on-base percentage to .288. That was beyond abysmal. His 14 home runs seemed as if they came a lifetime ago.
The Pirates also would be right to send down Oneil Cruz. He, too, is overmatched at the plate, especially against left-handed pitchers. He struck out four more times in the win Sunday at Colorado. He did slap an RBI single to left field in the ninth inning, but that merely bumped his average to .204 and his on-base percentage to .240. He has horrible plate discipline with 38 strikeouts and just five walks in 104 plate appearances. Talk about abysmal.
That is fun for you to watch?
Not me.
I know Cruz is an incredible athlete. He oozes talent. He runs like the wind with Tyreek Hill-like speed on the bases. He seems to set a speedball record with every throw he makes across the infield with his powerful arm. He has played much better defense at shortstop than anyone expected, especially considering he is 6-foot-7, the tallest player ever to play the position. And the ball makes a sound when it hits off his bat that you just don't hear with many other players. Cruz reminds me of James Harrison in that sense. When Harrison hit somebody on the football field, you didn't have to see it was No. 92 that did the hitting. You just knew.
"He will be in the river at PNC Park a few times before his career is over," noted baseball watcher Jim Leyland observed of Cruz last week.
"This kid is a real talent. He kind of plays with reckless abandon, which I like. I also like his energy. He seems to really enjoy playing the game."
There is no doubt the ball flies off of Cruz's bat. I don't need to know the exit velocity to realize that. But there is one major problem:
Cruz doesn't make contact nearly enough.
I think about what Derek Shelton said of Suwinski last week after he sent him down to Class AAA Indianapolis:
"He was going through a little bit of a rough stretch. The league kind of started to make some adjustments against him, and he was struggling a little bit to make adjustments back. This is just a little refresh for him."
Haven't we reached that same point with Cruz, who is 23, a baby, really, as a big league ballplayer?
Sending a player back to the minors doesn't have to be a death sentence for a player. Some of the greatest players in baseball history were demoted. I think of Hall of Famer Willie McCovey, who spent 17 games in the minors in 1960 after winning the National League Rookie of the Year award in 1959. I think of Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle, who was sent down for 40 games during his rookie season in 1951 after batting .260 in the majors.
So, no, I'm not worried about Cruz's pride being damaged if he is sent down. If he can't handle a demotion and is destroyed by it, he won't be the great player the Pirates need, anyway.
I hear people say it doesn't matter if Cruz stays and continues to struggle, that the Pirates will be a lousy team with a lousy record (39-54 at the All-Star break) with or without him. I'm just not buying it.
I'm more concerned about Cruz's confidence being shaken if he continues to fail with the big club. It has to be troubling for him to flail at big league pitching. He is a mess at the moment.
Letting Cruz clear his head and find his swing at Indianapolis makes the most sense.
