The Pittsburgh Pirates have one player standing above the rest after one month of the season has passed.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are seeing the calendar go from April to May, where they hope to improve from their sub-.500 record.
One player that has been working towards that is center fielder Oneil Cruz, who was named as the team’s MVP for the month of April by Bleacher Report writer Kerry Miller.
MVP: Oneil Cruz
His defense in center field has been a travesty, but Cruz might be making history with his offense, racking up eight home runs and 12 stolen bases in his first 25 games played this season. That’s a 162-game pace of 52 and 78, respectively. It’s also at least twice as good as his closest teammate in either department.
Cruz has been a big part of the Bucs’ success, and the rest of the team needs to play a little more like him if they are going to get back in the thick of the standings in the NL Central.
One player who could certainly use a boost is veteran outfielder Tommy Pham, who was named the team’s least valuable player to start the season.
LVP: Tommy Pham
A salary of $4.025 million wouldn’t be much on most teams, but it makes Pham Pittsburgh’s eighth-highest paid player this season. And after bouncing around between five teams over the past two years, the 37-year-old outfielder may have finally reached the end of the line, posting a sub-.500 OPS thus far as the Pirates’ regular left fielder.
BD community, what do you think of Cruz and Pham so far this season? Chime off in the comments section below.