Tim Benz: Ben Cherington is living in 2 worlds at once when it comes to Oneil Cruz's future at shortstop

At least Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington acknowledged it at one point during his weekly 93.7 The Fan radio show.

“I’m not answering your question,” Cherington admitted Sunday as he tried to segue between multiple points during an answer that lasted almost four minutes.

The extended response came after a question from Pirates play-by-play man Greg Brown. He asked if the organization was committed to keeping Oneil Cruz at shortstop or if it may consider an offseason position change given all of his fielding woes this season.

What followed was a response from Cherington that felt like he was attempting to be as definitive as possible in the affirmative while at the same time being totally noncommittal.

“All I can tell you right now is he’s our shortstop,” Cherington said.

If the answer had ceased at that point, I may have actually believed him.

However, within the same breath, Cherington added: “If there’s ever a point in the future where we really feel like what’s in the best interest of Oneil Cruz and what’s in the best interest of the team is something different, then we’ll have that conversation and revisit it.”

OK. No kidding.

Obviously, yes, at some “point in the future,” if Cruz is 35 years old and still playing for the Pirates, I’m sure management may want to consider asking him what he thinks of first base or designated hitter.

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Clearly, though, in the wake of Cruz’s fielding calamities so far in 2024, Brown wasn’t asking about some nebulous time in the 2030s. He was obviously asking about next year and how the franchise was planning to handle this issue during the offseason.

“Until we’re ready to have that conversation, (there is) not much use getting further into it,” Cherington continued. “I do know that from my own experience in the past — and you can see it across the game — lots of really great players get to the Major Leagues and stay in one position for their whole careers. Lots of really great players get to the major leagues at one position and move off a position and end up somewhere else.”

It seems like Cherington wanted to come off sounding as steadfast as he could about keeping Cruz at short while simultaneously giving himself an escape hatch should the team change its mind this winter.

This is the art of being a Major League general manager, I guess. Say so much that by the end of your quote, you’ve actually said nothing at all.

If Cherington is honestly resolved to keep Cruz at shortstop, it shouldn’t have to take almost four minutes to explain why.

The reality is he’s not resolved because it’s not an easy answer. It’s a hard decision.

Cherington made those comments just a few hours before his team ended up losing a 10-3 game to the Seattle Mariners that featured Cruz’s 24th error of the season. That’s the second-highest total in MLB this season.

“Coming into the year, and still today, we have felt that what’s best for Oneil Cruz and what’s best for the Pirates were the same thing: play short,” Cherington said of the team’s 2024 mindset. “Because if he can play it at a high enough level and produce offensively at the level that we think he’s capable of, that’s a unique thing to have because not many teams have a shortstop who can do those things offensively. So it’s to our benefit, and we believe to Oneil Cruz’s benefit, to give it every chance to find that out.”

Agreed. That did make sense to start the year. And it still may make sense to start 2025 if they doubt that Cruz is capable of playing another position any better — or even willing to give it a sincere try.

As TribLive Pirates beat writer Kevin Gorman told us during a recent “Breakfast With Benz” podcast, when the Pirates experimented with Cruz in the outfield during spring training a few years ago, he gave it “a Level 1 out of 10 effort.”

If that’s the case, it’s probably going to take “Level 10 out of 10” coaching to get Cruz better at shortstop or to buy into a position change. That’s certainly something we haven’t seen in the development of Pirates position players over the years.

Either way, I bet that conversation with Cruz will last more than four minutes.

As it should.

For his sake, I hope Cherington is more resolute in delivering whatever message he wants to send than he attempted to be on Sunday.