Neil Walker on Oneil Cruz: 'He's not making adjustments. That's clear as day... He's getting exposed.'

The struggles at the plate of Pirates rookie sensation Oneil Cruz can no longer be covered up by highlight clips of missile throws across the field or flashy exit velocity stats on his home runs.

Those skill set measurable stats are wonderful. But we can’t pretend that those are the only numbers that matter. The ones that need to be talked about more often are how frequently he is striking out and how infrequently he is reaching base.

Cruz went 0 for 5 Sunday in San Francisco. He totaled four strikeouts along the way. The shortstop is now hitting .200, he has 67 strikeouts as opposed to just 11 walks, and his on-base percentage is only .247. He has just three hits in his last 25 at-bats. Those 67 strikeouts in 182 plate appearances are tracking at a rate of 36.8%.

According to former Pirates infielder and current broadcast analyst Neil Walker, the most disturbing trend about Cruz is his inability to tweak his approach at the plate.

“He’s not making adjustments. That’s clear as day. You can see that,” Walker said Monday on 93.7 The Fan. “He’s getting exposed. Especially with off-speed (pitches). Seemingly he handled lefties fairly well in the minor leagues, and he’s getting exposed here right now. This is a sink-or-swim environment at the major league level.”

Cruz is hitting .191 against left-handed pitching. Over half of his plate appearances (67) against lefties have resulted in strikeouts (35). Walker said that Cruz’s biggest problem is that he appears to be struggling to make contact on pitches down and away from southpaws, and they are seizing on that weakness.

“Pitchers say, ‘OK, you are going to swing at pitches down and out of the zone, especially away from you,’” Walker continued. “They get ahead with fastballs, they expand (the strike zone), and if you start expanding with them, you aren’t going to have much success. That’s where he is living right now.”

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Walker also seemed to agree that the time has come to perhaps dial back all the fawning that seems to be going on about Cruz’s athletic potential and raw skill and perhaps focus more on how he is (or isn’t) applying those talents when it comes to his plate approach.

“The big thing people want to talk about is the skill set and the range in the field and exit velocity. All those things are fantastic. But he needs to do a better job of finding the barrel,” Walker said. “I’d love to at least see some adjustments. Whether that means with two strikes, shortening up or widening out, to get him to the point where he is making contact in those 1-2, 2-2 counts, and he is not continually getting exposed day in and day out.”

Walker said Cruz’s issues are especially noticeable late in games and in clutch situations.

“My big takeaway so far with him is (an) inability to barrel balls up against left-handers. When you get late in the game and you are hitting in the middle-of-the-order spots, he has to be able to make adjustments. He has to be able to put balls in play, at least square balls up. He doesn’t have to do damage. But you have to give competent at-bats. And he’s just not doing that at this point,” Walker concluded.

To underscore Walker’s points, Cruz is hitting just .124 with two strikes this season. In “late and close” situations (plate appearances in the 7th or later with the batting team tied, ahead by one, or the tying run at least on deck), Cruz has just six hits in 41 at-bats for an average of .146.

Some have said Cruz needs to be sent down to the minor leagues to work on his problems. Maybe. But if the issue is handling big league quality pitches from lefties, he’s not going to see that replicated in the minor leagues.

I seized on the distinction Walker made about not seeing adjustments. If Cruz is trying to make them in batting practice and pregame work and it’s just not translating to in-game situations, then keep him up and allow him to work through it.

It’s not like wins and losses matter at this point for a team that has 70 losses on Aug. 16.

But, if he’s simply not bothering to make those changes in approach, and he thinks he can just swing his way into success, then that’s when a demotion is necessary.

Walker said he is willing to give Cruz “a pass” on some of his numbers this year because jumping to the Major Leagues is such a challenge for rookies.

Understandable.

But I’m also going to start taking a pass on joining the gushy, drool-fest every time he uncorks a 100 miles-per-hour throw to first base on a routine out or occasionally launches a 425-foot homer on the rare occasions when he does make contact.

If Cruz needs a more balanced approach in the batter’s box, maybe we should have one when it comes to how he is covered as well.