2025 Player Outlook
Cruz will have shortstop and outfield eligibility heading into 2025, and he’s coming off a season where hit .259 with 21 home runs and 22 stolen bases across 146 games. That dual-eligibility will be nice for fantasy managers, and while his overall quantity of contact is still not quite as high as we would have liked, the 30.2 percent strikeout isn’t terrible for Cruz, all things considered. Albeit better in 2024, he’s still below average against southpaws, but those numbers are improving. He’s an everyday player for the Pirates in 2025 (and beyond), and he makes so much hard contact that I’m not ruling out a 25/25 campaign for Cruz in 2025. How fitting would that be?
Player News
Oneil Cruz is absent from the lineup for Saturday’s showdown against the Phillies.
Cruz, who is hitting .140 (8-for-57) this season against left-handed pitching, retreats to the bench on Saturday afternoon with crafty veteran Ranger Suárez on the mound for Philadelphia. It’ll be Alexander Canario patrolling center field in his absence.
Oneil Cruz singled and drove in a pair of runs on Thursday night as the Pirates fell to the Astros in Houston.
Cruz opened the scoring in the contest with a run-scoring ground out that plated Jared Triolo in the third inning. He also smacked a run-scoring single off of Framber Valdez in the fifth inning that pulled the Pirates to within two runs at 4-2. That would be as close as they would get. The 26-year-old center fielder finished the night 1-for-4 and is now hitting .230/.352/.469 with 12 homers, 28 RBI and 22 stolen bases on the season.
Oneil Cruz had two hits, including a double, and two steals against the Astros on Wednesday,
The double was crushed at 113.8 mph, but it wasn’t hit high enough to leave the yard. The two steals tonight gave him 22 in 54 games, matching his total from 146 games last season.
Oneil Cruz had a two-run homer and an RBI groundout in the Pirates’ rout of the Diamondbacks on Wednesday.
Cruz doubled in his first at-bat of the three-game series and homered in the last. In between those two events, he was 0-for-11 with six strikeouts. That the strikeouts have really piled up here the last few weeks is kind of scary — he’s fanned 33 times in 18 games — but he does have four homers in his last six games.
DFS Last 5
Date | Opponent | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 6/14/2025165 | @Cubs | |
| Jun 6/13/2025164 | @Cubs | 10 |
| Jun 6/13/2025164 | @Cubs | 2 |
| Jun 6/11/2025162 | Marlins | 12 |
| Jun 6/10/2025161 | Marlins | 14 |
Season Stats
Season Projections
Splits
Latest Features
