Pittsburgh Pirates heart fielder Oneil Cruz accepted an invite on Tuesday to compete in Monday’s Residence Run Derby in Atlanta.
Cruz is the fifth participant to decide to the competitors, held at some point earlier than the All-Star Sport. The others are Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves, Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, James Wood of the Washington Nationals and Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins.
Cruz, 26, is understood for having a strong bat and often delivers a few of the hardest-hit homers within the sport. His residence run Could 25 at residence in opposition to the Milwaukee Brewers had an exit velocity of 122.9 mph and was the hardest hit homer within the 10-year Statcast period.
However Cruz has by no means hit greater than 21 in a season, and that was in 2024. He is on observe to set a brand new excessive this yr and has 15 in 80 video games.
Cruz has 55 profession homers in 324 video games with the Pirates.
Cruz would be the first Pittsburgh participant to take part within the Derby since Josh Bell in 2019. Different Pirates to be a part of the occasion have been Bobby Bonilla (1990), Barry Bonds (1992), Jason Bay (2005), Andrew McCutchen (2012) and Pedro Alvarez (2013).
General, Cruz is batting simply .203 this season however leads the Nationwide League with 28 steals.
Among the many gamers to show down an invitation to the eight-player subject are two-time champion Pete Alonso of the New York Mets, Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies and 2024 runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals.
Defending champion Teoscar Hernandez of the Los Angeles Dodgers lately turned down a spot as a consideration to nagging accidents.
High energy threats Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers are also anticipated to skip the occasion.