Nationals slugger Nelson Cruz tells Jessica Camerato of MLB.com that he will undergo surgery on his left eye at the end of October due to some inflammation that is blocking his vision (Twitter links). He expects to resume baseball activities in 6-8 weeks, which should give him plenty of time to be ready for Spring Training.
“Vision is everything for hitters,” Cruz says. “But the good thing is, it can be fixed.” Going into more detail, he says: “You can only see clearly with the right eye. When I close this one, it’s not clear. I need my eyes to be sharp, to be able to see the ball, especially see spins.” Cruz then adds that he estimates the issue has been affecting him for the past year and a half, though it got worse recently.
The estimated timeline that Cruz provides is an interesting one, as that aligns with his downturn at the plate. He was an above-average hitter for 14 straight years from 2008 to 2021, though he tailed off in the second half of last year. He began the year with the Twins and hit .294/.370/.537 for a wRC+ of 142. In July, he was traded to the Rays for Joe Ryan, Drew Strotman and Calvin Faucher. Unfortunately for Tampa, Cruz’s production fell off almost immediately and he ended up hitting .226/.283/.442 as a Ray for a wRC+ of 95.
Despite that sluggish finish to the season, the rebuilding Nationals gave Cruz a one-year, $15MM deal plus a mutual option. The Nats didn’t really have designs on competing but likely hoped for Cruz to act as a mentor to younger players and then play well enough to be flipped for prospects midseason. Leading up to the trade deadline, there were some rumors that the Mets were interested, but a deal for Cruz never came together, likely due to his subpar performance this year. His batting line for the season is .234/.313/.337 for a wRC+ of 85.
Going into the offseason, Cruz is destined for the open market since mutual options are almost never picked up by both sides. This news about his eye will make his free agency an interesting case to watch. On the one hand, he is now 42 years old and has been below-average at the plate for over a year. He’s strictly a designated hitter at this point, meaning that he holds no value for teams if he can’t produce at the plate. However, if it’s true that the eye issue was holding him back, it’s possible that he could return to being a feared slugger like he was in the first few months of last season. He’ll have the next few months to find out which clubs are willing to take a chance on him.
He did not have a good year in Washington. Awesome to see that it’s not game over for him yet.
Maybe this will help him see that it’s time to retire
Hahaha
That’s only so that you’ll get his playing time? I see you Wander Javier, I see you
He needs sharp eyes to find his steroids in the morning.
He’s old
@Superstar Prospect Wander Javier & pbfog
Age discrimination is a thing, no matter what profession people are in. It appears you and some others like to discriminate too. Julio Franco hit .309 when he was 45, .275 when he was 46, .273 when he was 47, yes, Franco is a legend.. Discriminating against people based on their age is straight out bigotry, you would have said the same thing about Franco too, but you probably don’t even know who he is.
Cruz has had distorted vision in one eye, to even get the bat on the ball is a miracle. Eddie Rosario had similar problems, and just to get back to 100% takes time.
Fred McGriff HR;
Age discrimination is one thing. But that’s not the issue here.
Both Cruz and Rosario knew they had this problem, and did nothing about it until they had to.
It’s probably just me, but how can a professional baseball position player that has to bat against pitches spinning, diving, curving, sweeping, dropping, and darting etc. at well over 80 MPH continue to play with a condition like that? It endangers their own health, and it hurts their team. Were I a FO person I wouldn’t sign either one of them in the future. Would a hospital allow a surgeon with that condition to operate on patients? In that case the hospital would get sued.
Sam & Fred,
Don’t sweat the ageist comment, crap like that everyday on here. He is just a moron… I can’t say I like Nelly. The stuff in 2013 peeved me off too much. Although, I pull for these guys that can still play ball past 40 and can compete with the best of em. I know it sounds like doublespeak but that’s OK. Maybe he has another 5+ years.
Fred Mcgriff
Nope, some people are just realistic about things bud. Julio Franco is an outlier. As is Jamie Moyer, whom I’m sure you’ll pull out of the quiver next. If calling an athlete old, (someone who uses their BODY to perform) is a form of bigotry, then I fear you are truly lost my friend. Try looking at life without the perspective of everything being hateful, bigoted, ageist, and maybe you will actually crack a smile! Now you have a good night brother
Cisco, let the man say his peace in peace. “He is old” is a pretty stupid/asinine comment to begin with.. Side with the winning team friend.
Yes, age discrimination is a thing, and it sucks, and the laws against it are a farce because they’re flouted with impunity. But I don’t think this case is really a good example.
Nelson Cruz was still getting work at the highest level of the game at a time when most position players are well into decline. Franco was an extreme rarity you’d be hard pressed to match in the history of the game.
The job of hitting in the majors comes with requirements. Good vision is one, as Nelson said. So is bat speed, which declines with age. The fact is, the job of a professional athlete is one that favors youth, and the shelf life is much shorter than, say, a white-collar job where being physically out of shape isn’t a disqualifier. Ballplayers lose their jobs when they can’t perform, regardless of their age. There have been plenty of guys who were out of the majors in their 20s. Tough racket.
Nice post Fink
Tell that to Miggy
Maybe his doctor will find some ringworms and offer treatment.
Maybe Cano or Jennry Mejia can give him some of their “meds.”
A man has an inflamed eye that needs surgery, and you recycle an overplayed, stale joke.
Dude shut up it’s a joke
Yeah, eye surgery is hilarious.
Doctor: Your son was born without eyelids so we had to do emergency eye surgery to protect his eyes – we took part of his foreskin and made him new eyelids
Mother: Is he going to be ok?
Doctor: He will be fine..but cockeyed.
Eye surgery can be funny
youtu.be/k-oqgIZGhbU
Funny thing is Cruz took roids already
past tense?
Yeah roids in the past
I hope the operation goes well. Good luck to him.
42 coming off of a career worst season. Eye issue or not i can’t imagine Cruz gets many (if any) guaranteed offers this winter
Yea i agree, he was hammering the ball even in his age 37-40 seasons so its not outlandish to assume bad eyes had a big impact on him falling off. That being said tho he will be 42/43 going into next year so i wouldnt expect him to hit 275 with 30+ bombs. He is worth a 1 mil flyer with 5+ in incentives, worst case he gets cut after 20/30 games, but as the nats used him he is great to show younger players how to be a pro espically the Hispanic guys. He never had a ops+ under 124 in 9 years before this and only hit less then 27 HRs twice in said years with 1 being 24, so he may have something left to give
It’s your turn Angel Hernandez
I suspect even Ctuz’s current vision would be a massive upgrade for Angel.
Nice of him to bring this up now.
Where was this revelation in:
The second half of the 2021 season while he cashed
$5,102,151 in checks from Tampa Bay.
The ENTIRE 2022 season when he cashed
$12,000,000 in checks from Washington.
Could just be that Father Time is catching up to Mr Cruz
Both Rosario & Cruz.
Both former Minnesota Twins.
Better check the air up there in Minnesota.
Based on the batting averages this year
there are other Twins players who are not seeing the ball
There must be SOMETHING going on up there.
Isn’t the stadium near the Hennepin County Garbage Incinerator??
AKA = (in kinder terms as HERC) = Hennepin Energy Recovery Center
So much for the wisdom of building an open air baseball stadium in
MINNESOTA. for one and for two, in the (literal) shadows of a garbage burning plant
Thanks Carl (Mr Cheap) Pohlad. Your legacy continues.!!
Don’t teams do physicals when they hand these million $$$ contracts.
The Doctor adminestering the physical didn’t have good eye-sight.
Best of luck to him!
I actually really wanted to see both Cruz and Edwin Encarnacion reach 500 homers.
Technically if Cruz accomplished that milestone, the steroid use would render it trivial one could argue
“Vision is everything for a hitter”
Rosario still swings at pitches 10 miles off the zone despite the surgery unfortunately
He’s obviously not going to command anywhere near $15m, so the question is more if he would be willing to take a show-me deal. Is $1-2m worth coming back for another year on the road for him, hoping to parlay that into something a little better? If his vision is truly the reason for his struggles, and he bounces back, how much would a 43 year old DH command on a one year deal?
I would think that given the money he’s made that doing all that work for a massive pay cut is maybe not interesting to most. But some do it! Maybe he wants to be a Bartolo Colon type and try to play in his mid-late 40s
I think Cruz wouldn’t have lasted this long in baseball had it not been for his steroid use
Rosario can clearly see those baseballs that are 10 miles out of the zone
His BRAIN surgery THIS off season, if successful,
will stop it from telling his body to swing !!
“ ‘Vision is everything for hitters’, said Cruz”.
Debatable. A really good hitter can use sound to compensate.
Secret radar implants? Then they’d have to start wanding guys.
So that’s why they call them batsmen, eh?
Most likely the best option for him is to get a minimum contract with an invitation to Spring Training and it’s surprising Minnesota paid 15,000,000 for his services at age 42. Similar career to Edwin Encarnacion; both solid players but rapidly declined
Surgery to relieve inflammation, and he’s saying that it’s been a problem for a year and half? The same year and half he’s been doodoo?
Who is living and working with eye inflammation, while under an MLB contract? He left the Rays and signed with the Nats, and they didn’t notice this eyeball problem in physicals? They didn’t make a treatment plan? They thought a 6-8 week timeline was too much to deal with and they’d rather have Cruz bat like dump for a whole season?
I’m calling BS.
Maybe, the multiple PED suspensions this off-season had him worried.
So he didn’t bring this to the attention of doctors or team personnel until recently? Seems incredibly dishonest if he’s hidden this affliction and this is the reason behind the decline in production.
Crazy Cruz is still out there as a 41 DH only. Seems like he’s been around forever but didn’t play his first year till 28! Imagine if he was this good at a young age as he is as an old man.
Best he should hope for is an incentive laden deal with a very low guarantee.