The Yankees Should Trade for Oneil Cruz
- E.J. Fagan
- Jul 9
- 4 min read
By E.J. Fagan
July 9, 2025
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NOTE: The following comes from EJ Fagan's substack page and is shared with permission.
Please check out EJ's substack page for more great articles.
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It’s been a rough month. The Boone Swoon happened for a fifth straight year, with no signs of the team coming out of it again. But, the Yankees are still in a strong position to not only make the playoffs, but win the AL East. They’re going to be buyers at the trade deadline.
Before the bad month, it was hard to imagine where the Yankees could find a big upgrade at the deadline other than adding Eugenio Suarez at third base or adding some bullpen arms. The team was just too well-rounded. But things have changed. They’re now locked in a three way street fight for first place. The team needs to make a big move to stay competitive.
So I want to spend the next few weeks discussing trades beyond the usual suspects. These trades are both intended to help the 2025 team and set them up for the future. Let’s start with a fun one.
The Pirates are in full sell mode, and Oneil Cruz is in theory on the table. His Statcast page is a little insane:
Cruz is one of the best athletes in the major leagues. He swings the bat and hits the ball harder than anyone else, including Aaron Judge. He walks a ton. He’s crazy fast and has the game’s best outfield arm. But, he also strikes out more than pretty much anyone thanks to being 6’7”. His .717 OPS is a little low according to Statcast, but not absurdly so.
He’s also got worse platoon splits than even Jasson Dominguez: .815 OPS against righties, .444 OPS against lefties.
He’s a flawed superstar. It’s all adds up to about a 3 WAR player, or somewhere in between Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells. But his ceiling is incredible if some team can fix his swing. Hook the man up Aaron Judge’s hitting coach.
You can see why the Pirates might trade Cruz. Right now, he’s a very flashy above average player who is about to enter arbitration. He might have more value in a trade than he does to the Pirates.
Cruz would slot in as your centerfielder and maybe leadoff hitter. Bellinger would move over to left or even play a lot of 1st base.
What would it cost to acquire him? A lot, obviously, but I’m not sure what degree of a lot. You could make a strong argument that he’s less valuable than Jazz Chisholm was when the Yankees got him for Agustin Ramirez. On the other hand, I bet that he would be in high demand.
Let me throw out three archetypal teams and let’s discuss if they would get it done.
All Prospects: Spencer Jones, Brendan Beck and Carlos LaGrange for Oneil Cruz
Pittsburgh Needs a MLBer: Jasson Dominguez for Oneil Cruz
Blockbuster: Jasson Dominguez, Spencer Jones, Cam Schlittler and Carlos LaGrange for Ke’Bryan Hayes, David Bednard and Oneil Cruz
You could sub in a lot of players on the Yankees side in these trades, but I want to discuss the basic ideas.
I think there are two problems with an all prospect trade. First, Pittsburgh probably wants major league players, even if just to justify the trade to their fans. Second, the Yankees would only make their OF/DH/1b logjam worse by adding an outfielder without subtracting one. Even if they traded Grisham or someone after the deal, they still have an extra player.
So what about a Dominguez for Cruz swap? Honestly, the players are a little too similar. Cruz has two fewer years of team control and is more than four years older. They’re both fast, strikeout prone players with gigantic platoon splits and lots of upside. I think I’d rather keep Dominguez.
The blockbuster trade is a framework to make it work for both teams. The Yankees get third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, another flawed hitter who is one of the best defenders in baseball. He’s being paid just $9 million for a 2ish WAR performance, but maybe the Yankees can squeeze a little more juice out of the orange.
They also get a strong rental reliever in David Bednar.
The Pirates get Dominguez and a bunch of solid prospects. I named Jones, Schlittler and LaGrange, but you could slot in any combination of prospects, or a three way trade involving some other team throwing in prospects and the Yankees throwing in Trent Grisham.
Could Mitch Keller be included in a blockbuster trade? I’m against it. His $15 million AAV for the next four and a half years is nice, but he’s been a pretty mediocre starter for a long time now:
Give me a shorter term commitment to Luis Severino over Keller right now.
I’m not sure if any of these trades make sense, or if Cruz is seriously on the market. Maybe he even goes for a 2025 version of the Jazz Chisholm trade, or significantly more.
No thank you very much, EJ! While Oneil Cruz is a spectacular athlete and his Baseball Savant page looks enticing, the tools and raw data haven't translated into much: career best 2.5 WAR (and on a pace this year for just about exactly the same number) with an OPS+ tracking at only about 10% better than an average MLB hitter. as he now hits his 3 arbitration years. The Pirates took two years to figure out he can't play SS in the majors, so they shifted him to CF where he now leads all MLB OF's in errors. Assuming you could fit him into your lineup, like Dominguez he'd be a nice bat against RHP, but unplayable v. southpaws. Most…
Spencer Jones is 2-4, HR, 3R, K (by ABS) today so far. He is establishing himself once again, ONLY IF I'm getting Jose Ramirez from Cleveland. Schlittler, unless it's Jacob deGrom, I cannot see him going anywhere at the deadline. Dominguez, sorry, he stays. Carlos Lagrange too. Willing to have Rice head the package going back? Plus, I think Brandon Jones was promoted to AA too early, but he can go get it.
I like more 'n more the idea of going to Arizona and talking about both Zac Gallen and 3B E. Suarez, as a package IF they want that extra prospect. My list of prospects that they can choose from is long, and if you pick a certain…
give them Jones and Rice
and get Cruz to play third base, even if it ulcerates Paul
i think your idea about going for upside is a good one!! OBVIOUSLY Cruz is extremely valid in that conversation
I just think Jdom is at the point where if we trade him it better be for a sure thing. is he a sure thing yet? i dont think we can say that. but he is so obviously getting better. in the case of Cruz he could be getting worse. the Yankees KNOW what they have in Jdom. i have NEVER heard a word about him except that he is a top top notch individual with a work ethic to match
so I feel like the higher upside in this case could VERY VERY arguably be with keeping our own…
Interesting. But, no thank you. To too many K's. Was recently benched and disciplined for not running hard. They don't need another prima donna, they need hard nosed ball players that care.