{"id":548251,"date":"2026-01-31T22:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/548251\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T22:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:44:14","slug":"pirates-oneil-cruz-ranked-as-top-10-centerfielder-in-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/548251\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates&#8217; Oneil Cruz Ranked As Top-10 Centerfielder In Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 offense is expected to be <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/01\/05\/mlb-insider-says-pirates-appear-to-be-going-from-pretender-to-contender\/\" id=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/01\/05\/mlb-insider-says-pirates-appear-to-be-going-from-pretender-to-contender\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">significantly better<\/a> during the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>Right <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2025\/12\/22\/brandon-lowe-touts-pirates-lineup-potential-citing-bryan-reynolds-oneil-cruzs-impact\/\" id=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2025\/12\/22\/brandon-lowe-touts-pirates-lineup-potential-citing-bryan-reynolds-oneil-cruzs-impact\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in the middle<\/a> of the Pirates\u2019 projected 2026 lineup is outfielder Oneil Cruz, who led the team with 20 home runs and 38 stolen bases during the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Cruz, who <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/01\/27\/pirates-star-makes-major-world-baseball-classic-decision\/\" id=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/01\/27\/pirates-star-makes-major-world-baseball-classic-decision\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently decided to join<\/a> the Dominican Republic\u2019s roster for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, was also ranked as baseball\u2019s 10th-best centerfielder on MLB Network\u2019s annual list of the \u201cTop 10 Players Right Now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rankings are compiled \u201cbased on past performance, various offensive and defensive metrics (including both advanced statistics and traditional numbers) and analysis by the MLB Network research team,\u201d according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/top-10-mlb-players-at-each-position-for-2026\" id=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/top-10-mlb-players-at-each-position-for-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MLB.com\u2019s Brian Murphy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh\u2019s 27-year-old speedster is ranked behind (in order from one to nine): Seattle Mariners three-time All-Star Julio Rodriguez, Texas Rangers youngster Wyatt Langford, Minnesota Twins All-Star and Silver Slugger award winner Byron Buxton, San Diego Padres 2024 Rookie of the Year runner-up Jackson Merrill, Chicago Cubs All-Star and Gold Glove award winner Pete Crow-Armstrong, Los Angeles Dodgers two-time World Series champion Andy Pages, New York Yankees two-time Gold Glove award winner Trent Grisham, Toronto Blue Jays 2024 Gold Glove winner Daulton Varsho and Cincinnati Reds veteran TJ Friedl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>More MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/01\/29\/pirates-farm-system-scores-highly-in-keith-laws-2026-rankings\/\" id=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/01\/29\/pirates-farm-system-scores-highly-in-keith-laws-2026-rankings\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pirates Farm System Scores Highly In Keith Law\u2019s 2026 Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 offense is expected to be significantly better during the 2026 season. Right in the middle&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,1330],"class_list":{"0":"post-548251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-oneil-cruz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115992137761105777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}