{"id":103679,"date":"2025-07-08T17:43:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T21:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=103679"},"modified":"2025-07-08T17:43:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T21:43:21","slug":"pirates-oneil-cruz-fifth-participant-home-run-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/07\/08\/pirates-oneil-cruz-fifth-participant-home-run-derby\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Star Oneil Cruz to Participate in Home Run Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cruzon01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oneil Cruz<\/a> will participate in the Home Run Derby on Monday, July 14 in Atlanta. As of this writing, he\u2019s the fifth participant, along with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/acunaro01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/buxtoby01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Byron Buxton<\/a>, major league home run leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/raleica01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cal Raleigh<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/woodja03.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Wood<\/a>. Three more participants have yet to be named.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_103697\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-103697\" style=\"width: 586px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-103697\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26558616_168400885_lowres-300x211.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"586\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26558616_168400885_lowres-300x211.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26558616_168400885_lowres-1024x720.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26558616_168400885_lowres-768x540.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26558616_168400885_lowres-1536x1080.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26558616_168400885_lowres-2048x1440.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 586px) 100vw, 586px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-103697\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jun 29, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz (15) circles the bases on his second home run of the game against the New York Mets during the seventh inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Oneil Cruz to Participate in Home Run Derby<\/h2>\n<p>To say the least, Cruz has been an enigma in 2025. He\u2019s hit 15 home runs so far this season, many of which were jaw-dropping tape-measure jobs. He also sets Statcast marks for exit velocity off the bat and laser throws from the outfield seemingly nightly. He leads the National League with 28 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/03\/running-pirates-stolen-base\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">stolen bases<\/a>. But the six-foot-seven, left-handed batter has also struck out 113 times, is hitting just .203\/.315\/.402, and has frustrated with a lack of effort and focus at times. One imagines the effort and attention will be there under the bright lights at Truist Park. It should be quite a show.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Get your popcorn ready \ud83c\udf7f<\/p>\n<p>Oneil Cruz will participate in the 2025 Home Run Derby! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HAbpYeHVJw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/HAbpYeHVJw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Pirates\/status\/1942636606911103401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Cruz is the seventh Pirate to participate in the Home Run Derby. The others were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alvarpe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pedro \u00c1lvarez<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bayja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jason Bay<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=belljo02,belljo01,bell--011jos&amp;search=Josh+Bell&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Bell<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bonilbo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bobby Bonilla<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bondsba01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Barry Bonds<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccutan01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew McCutchen<\/a>. No Pirate has ever emerged from the contest victorious.<\/p>\n<p>Bay came away from the competition without a single home run during his 2005 appearance. He was never a classic slugger, however, but was chosen to represent Canada when the Powers That Be turned the Derby into an international competition. Fans may have forgotten Alvarez\u2019s 2013 appearance. The Pirates were a compelling story that year, but the brain trust at ESPN missed it. Instead, they were kind enough to conduct an interview during \u00c1lvarez\u2019s round. He was barely even mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>Pirates fans have nightmares about Bell\u2019s 2019 appearance. At the All-Star break, he was hitting .302\/.376\/.648 with 27 home runs. However, after he participated in the Derby, he hit .233\/.351\/.429 with 10 homers. He\u2019s never hit as well as he did in that first half of 2019, and since the Pirates traded him in 2021, he\u2019s been <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/29\/josh-bell-returns-nationals-one-year-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">passed from team to team<\/a> like a hot potato.<\/p>\n<h3>On TV<\/h3>\n<p>For those unwilling to take out a second mortgage to be there in person, ESPN will televise the Derby at 8:00 PM Eastern with the usual overkill. Karl Ravech will describe the action. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/perezed01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eduardo P\u00e9rez<\/a>\u00a0and past Derby winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/frazito01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Todd Frazier<\/a> will serve as analysts, with\u00a0Alden Gonz\u00e1lez as sideline reporter. A separate Statcast-oriented telecast will air on ESPN2, featuring Kevin Brown, Jessica Mendoza, and Mike Petriello. All that will be missing is Jerry Mathers as The Beaver.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz will participate in the Home Run Derby on Monday, July 14 in Atlanta. As of this writing, he\u2019s the fifth participant, along with Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., Byron Buxton, major league home run leader Cal Raleigh, and James Wood. Three more participants have yet to be named. Oneil Cruz to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":103696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071,35],"tags":[610,70,2843,3155,3056,1129,3434,551],"class_list":["post-103679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","category-news","tag-andrew-mccutchen","tag-barry-bonds","tag-bobby-bonilla","tag-eduardo-perez","tag-jason-bay","tag-josh-bell","tag-oneil-cruz","tag-todd-frazier"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103679"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103698,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103679\/revisions\/103698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}