"It doesn’t make Oneil Cruz dumb because he’s Latin American, it's bad play" - Sportscaster believes Pirates star should be 'called out' after errors

Oneil Cruz has had one of the best seasons as a rookie offensively for the Pittsburgh Pirates this season. He has gotten extra base hits, driven in crucial runs and hit the ball pretty hard with exit velocities reaching 120 mph. But it has been defensive errors at shortstop that have been hard to ignore for Pirates fans.

Cruz, standing at 6'7'', is one of the tallest players to play at the shortstop position in a long time. The 25-year-old has struggled with 24 errors this season and a Defensive Runs Saved metric at -9. His struggles can also be partly attributed to a leg injury that kept him out for almost all of last season.

This has led to fans criticizing Cruz and wanting more effort in the diamond. However, as per Pirates analyst Dejan Kovacevic, fans need to have a similar metric while judging Latin American origin players, which Pittsburgh allegedly failed to do.

"Latin American players I have talked to in the past ask that it [criticism] is fair to everybody. So if you look at Cruz getting picked off yesterday ... that's not good basbeall play. That's not good baseball sense but that doesn't make him dumb because he's Latin American," Kovacevic said.

Oneil Cruz moved to Center Field

The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Tuesday that Oneil Cruz would be shifted to the outfield from the shortstop position. Newly acquired during the trade deadline from the Toronto Blue Jays, Isiah Kiner-Falefa will reportedly be the shortstop for the rest of the season.

Cruz's errors have compounded over the last few weeks. Since July 21, the rookie has made 14 errors and has been subject to a lot of speculation. He has experience playing at center field, as the Pirates tested him in that position in Spring Training and even in Triple-A with Indianapolis in 2022.

The Pirates are currently 62-68 and sit last in the NL Central standings. They are eight games behind the last spot in the NL Wild Card standings and need to pass at least six other clubs to gain contention.