All you need to know about the extent of the major injury suffered by Pittsburgh Pirates star player Oneil Cruz.
According to a statement released by the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, shortstop Oneil Cruz will be sidelined for at least four months after undergoing surgery to repair a fracture in his left ankle. Cruz was hurt after he collided with Seby Zavala, the catcher for the Chicago White Sox, at home plate during yesterday afternoon’s game, which the Chicago White Sox won.
Cruz’s clumsy slide into home plate and the subsequent activities that followed it caused significant damage that required medical attention. After some time, he had to be assisted off the pitch since he was unable to put any weight on his left leg.
After the benches were cleared out, there was no physical altercation and no one was kicked out of the game. On the first at-bat after the benches were cleared, Santana batted with Zavala behind the plate, and there was no incident during the at-bat.
Cruz, who is 24 years old, got on base thanks to a walk and advanced to third place thanks to a single by Bryan Reynolds earlier in the inning. He came into the game on Sunday with a hitting line of.267/.378/.400 and almost exactly the same number of walks (six) as strikeouts (eight). After playing in 87 games last year, Cruz had a batting line of.233/.294/.450, which was good enough to earn him a spot on the Opening Day roster.
Cruz was a consensus top-25 prospect in baseball heading into the year 2022, and he is a core piece for a Pirates team that is seeking to shift out of rebuilding and into contention in the near future.
Oneil Cruz was born in the Dominican Republic, which is his home nation. Cruz, unlike a significant number of the other players in the league, did not come into the league through the draft process; rather, he was signed as an international free agent.
After signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers as an international free agent in July 2015 and receiving a signing bonus of $950,000 from the team, Cruz became a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. The next year, he made his debut in the professional ranks by playing for the DSL Dodgers 1 squad. In 55 games during that season, he had a batting average of.294 and drove in 23 runs.
In 2017, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates reached an agreement for the Los Angeles Dodgers to acquire Tony Watson from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Nelson Cruz and Angel German. After that, he was given control of the West Virginia Power company to oversee. He participated in a total of 105 games for both of the organizations, compiling a batting average of 237, a slash line of 297/350, 10 home runs, and 44 RBI in those contests.
During the 2018 season, he participated in 103 games with the West Virginia Power and won South Atlantic League All-Star honours after posting a batting average of.286, accumulating 14 home runs and 56 RBIs, and participating in all of those games. Before sustaining a fracture in his right foot, Cruz began the 2019 season playing for the Bradenton Marauders at the Class A-Advanced level. During this time, he was playing at the level.
Following the end of the 2019 season, the Pirates came to the conclusion that Cruz should be added to their 40-man roster. After being added to the active roster for the first time in 2021, Cruz made his first appearance in the Major League Baseball (MLB) the following year. The year 2021 was the first year that he played in the Major Leagues, and on October 3, 2021, he hit his first career home run in Pittsburgh. He also made two appearances in the Major Leagues that year.
Because it was deemed in the year 2022 that Cruz would not be selected for the club coming out of spring training, he was demoted to Triple-A Indianapolis to begin the year there. During spring training, he participated in five games and had a batting average of 333 with two home runs. He also had a perfect game. [15] After getting called up for the game against the Chicago Cubs on June 20, he made his first appearance of the year and his first appearance of the season. During that game, he had two singles, scored two runs, and drove in four runners.
On August 24, 2022, Cruz faced off against Atlanta Braves pitcher Kyle Wright, and during that game, Cruz hit the ball with the most force that has ever been recorded in the Statcast era. The velocity of the ball was determined to be 197.0 kilometres per hour after being timed (122.4 miles per hour). In spite of the fact that he has established himself as a regular member of the Pirates, he will not be able to contribute to the squad due to a recent injury.
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