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?