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Oneil Cruz

2026
Pirates· CF · bats L · throws R· 419 plate appearances
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Grade

His grade shows how good he has been, and at what.
B+better than 79% of hitters at creating bases

His season is in line with his established level.

Three-Outcome Slugger

Elite power and walks; lives with the strikeouts.

Big production, big swing-and-miss

Oneil Cruz squares the ball up. He hits it hard more often than 98% of qualified hitters. The strikeouts pile up, though. Only 5% of qualified hitters strike out more often.

419 plate appearances · data through 2026-09-27.

How to read this chart
Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size, not a raw season stat, and farther out is better. A ↓ marks a stat where a lower number is better, and its spoke is flipped so farther out still means better. The middle ring marks the league median and the outer ring the league best. EB/PA is estimated bases, HR% home runs, BB% walks and K% strikeouts, each per plate appearance, and Hard-hit% is balls hit 95 mph or harder. Percentiles compare him with 534 qualified hitters, the ones with 50 or more plate appearances.

Plays like…

Each of these hitters shares his archetype and sits closest to him in EB/PA. Pick one to see him side by side with Oneil Cruz.

Davis SchneiderBlue JaysHeriberto HernándezMarlinsCarter JensenRoyalsRhys HoskinsGuardians

Hitter type

See what kind of hitter he is, next to the rest of the league.

Hitter type

He hits the ball hard far more often than most, and he gives away more at-bats than most.

League best:BB% − K% Josue De Paula (14.3%)Hard-hit% Yohandy Morales (62.5%)

How to read this chart
Two skills separate hitting styles: not giving away at-bats (walk rate minus strikeout rate) and squaring the ball up (hard-hit rate). Up and to the right is better on both. Every dot is a hitter with at least 40 plate appearances this season, and dot size tracks plate appearances. Click any dot to open that hitter's page.
 Oneil CruzLeague medianPercentile
Bases per ball in play(higher = better).693.511—
Walk rate(higher = better)11%8%85th
Strikeout rate(lower = better)33%23%5th

A higher percentile is better, and the 99th is the top of the league.

Platoon splits

See how he hits left-handed and right-handed pitchers.

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

He hits righties better than lefties, by 0.080 EB/PA.

50% probable range: +0.059 to +0.103

vs LHP140 PA0.426

vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.426 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.404 to 0.448, based on 140 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.433 EB/PA. League median vs LHP: 0.424 EB/PA.

vs RHP281 PA0.506

vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.506 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.488 to 0.524, based on 281 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.526 EB/PA. League median vs RHP: 0.433 EB/PA.

0.3890.4270.4640.5010.539
← worsebetter →
Above league medianBelow50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league

His split is about typical for a lefty bat (median 0.078).

He sits in the league's middle half vs lefties and the league's top quarter vs righties.

How to read this chart
  • Each dot is his estimate against that hand, with its 50% probable range as the bar. Higher is better.
  • The diamond is his raw rate, which small samples make noisy, so the simulator pulls the dot toward a more trustworthy value.
  • The dashed tick is the league median, and the shaded strip is the middle half of hitters with 50 or more plate appearances.
  • Tap or hover a mark for its number. LHP and RHP are left- and right-handed pitchers. More on the About page

How he hits

See what his contact is worth and what pitchers throw him.

He hits the ball to the pull side most often, but does his most damage up the middle.

Best batted balls

Every ball Oneil Cruz put in play this season is drawn where it landed.
hit · out
EBlowhigh
vs Andrew AbbottHome run
107 mph · 28° · worth 3.9 bases
04/01 vs Reds
vs Jalen BeeksHome run
117 mph · 30° · worth 3.9 bases
04/22 vs Rangers
vs Dylan CeaseHome run
106 mph · 29° · worth 3.9 bases
05/24 vs Blue Jays
vs Pierce JohnsonHome run
108 mph · 34° · worth 3.9 bases
03/31 vs Reds
vs Erick FeddeHome run
117 mph · 25° · worth 3.9 bases
09/10 vs White Sox

Luck check

3 of his outs came on balls the simulator values at 1.5 bases or more.

vs Kumar RockerOutUnlucky out
111 mph · 34° · worth 3.1 bases
04/21 vs Rangers
How to read this chart
Dot color is estimated bases (EB), what the contact was worth no matter what the defense did with it. Darker means more bases, so a dark hollow ring in the outfield is a crushed ball that got caught. Tap or hover a dot or a row to link the two, and use the ▶ links to watch a play on Baseball Savant.

Performance by pitch type

2026 · 1,734 pitches

Each row shows the bases he adds per 100 pitches of one type, against the league.

← below league medianabove league median →
Four-Seam Fastball (497 pitches)
−0.3
Lg median −0.4Lg best +8.7
Slider (248 pitches)
+2.0
Lg median −0.5Lg best +12.2
Sinker (240 pitches)
−1.1
Lg median −1.3Lg best +9.7
Changeup (228 pitches)
+0.6
Lg median −0.5Lg best +16.5
Sweeper (138 pitches)
+5.6
Lg median −0.2Lg best +15.7
Cutter (121 pitches)
+5.0
Lg median −0.4Lg best +16.4
Curveball (113 pitches)
+0.6
Lg median +0.4Lg best +22.2
Splitter (74 pitches)
−5.0
Lg median −0.5Lg best +12.9
Other (75 pitches)

+5.7 bases per 100 · no single-type league comparison

Above league medianBelowMiddle half of the leagueLg medianLg best
How to read this chart
Each row is the bases he adds per 100 pitches of that type, on the same scale as the pitcher pages’ “saved/cost per 100” but from the hitter’s side. Every pitch counts. Taking a ball adds value, whiffing loses it, and the pitch that ends the plate appearance scores its outcome against what that count usually produces. A value of +3.5 means his results against that pitch have been worth about 3.5 extra bases per 100 seen. Higher is better. Types with fewer than 50 pitches seen pool into “Other”.

Deserved vs. actual

Oneil Cruz has been credited with about 22 more bases than his contact earned. His results have run lucky so far.

Deserved by his own contact157
Actually credited to him179

Both bars count only his 227 balls in play, so walks and strikeouts are left out.

How to read this chart
Every ball he puts in play is worth the bases its exit velocity, launch angle and direction usually earn. If the second bar is longer than the first, his results have run ahead of his contact and he has been lucky. If it is shorter, he has been unlucky.

Swing

See how fast he swings and what he changes with two strikes. League tracking starts in 2024.

Swing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-09-27
Bat speed · 702 swings
76.6 mph
Lg median 71.1 mph
Slowest: S. Kwan (61.8 mph)Fastest: J. Caminero (78.4 mph)
Lg median

He swings faster than most hitters. His swing length and attack angle both sit in the league's middle range. With two strikes, he cuts his bat speed about as much as most hitters. His bat travels on a fairly typical path. His bat speed is down 3.3 mph since April, which counts as "a real change" and not day-to-day noise.

Attack angle
7.2°
Lg median 9.6°
Swing length
7.5 ft
Lg median 7.3 ft
Swing path tilt
33.3°
Lg median 32.4°
Middle half of the league
How to read this chart
  • Bat speed counts competitive swings only, so bunts and check swings under 50 mph are left out.
  • Swing length is how far the sweet spot of the bat travels during the swing. Attack angle is the bat’s upward or downward tilt through the zone.
  • Swing path tilt is how steep the bat’s path is.
  • “A real change” means the move from his first full month to his latest clears a strict statistical bar.
  • None of these is better or worse on its own. Swing style trades power against contact, and the fastest and slowest swings in the league both belong to stars. More on the About page

Timing

See whether his swing meets the ball early or late, over or under. Tracking starts in mid-2023.

Timing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-09-27
Perfect contact · 715 swings
15.9%
Lg median 22.6%Lg best 37.9%
On-time swings
52.2%
Lg median 64.6%Lg best 79.6%
Miss distance on whiffs
3.5 in
Lg median 3.0 inLg best 1.0 in

He squares the ball up less often than most hitters. When his timing is off, it's usually early, about 15 ms ahead of perfect timing. When he misses vertically, it's more often under the ball than over it. More of his mishits come from reaching at pitches away from him than from getting tied up inside.

Middle half of the league
How to read this chart
  • Perfect contact is a swing that is centered, on time and lined up, all at once. On-time swings land within 7 milliseconds of ideal timing. Higher is better on both.
  • Miss distance counts swings and misses only. It is how far the barrel half of the bat passed from the ball, in inches, and lower is better.
  • League comparisons cover hitters with 100 or more tracked swings this season. Switch hitters have both sides combined.
  • More on the About page

How he sets up

See where he stands in the box and how his feet are set, next to the league-average setup.

How he sets up

He sets up with a wide base, his feet 40″ apart against the 30″ league average.

Top-down batting stance vs league averagePitcher ↑

Each point is his average setup for one month this season, about a second before each pitch.

Middle half of the leagueLg median
His feetLg avg
How to read this chart
  • This is an overhead view of the batter’s box. The dots are his feet about one second before the pitch, and the rings are the league-average setup.
  • Open means his front foot is pulled off the line to the plate, and closed means it steps toward it. Neither is better or worse.
  • The chart is his monthly average this season. The band and dashed line are the middle half and the median of hitters over the whole season.
  • On the angle chart, below zero is open and above zero is closed.
  • Data through 2026-09-27. More on the About page

Best games

These are his biggest games this season.

Best games

These are his best games this season, ranked by bases above replacement.

Multi-season trends · Oneil Cruz

Compared with last season, his HR% is up and his Pull% is up.

Actual rates show what happened on the field, season by season.