Veteran slugger Nelson Cruz had a down year with the Nationals in 2022 and turned 42 over the summer, but the seven-time All-Star doesn’t appear to be considering retirement. Cruz said in a radio appearance on Grandes en los Deportes in his native Dominican Republic that he’s already received formal offers for the 2023 season (Twitter link). As one would expect, Cruz did not reveal which team or teams have made him an offer, nor did he divulge additional details on the nature of said offers.
Following the season, Cruz underwent surgery on his left eye — a procedure intended to alleviate inflammation that had blurred his vision. Cruz noted at the time that he’d had issues with the eye dating back to the 2021 season, though they worsened considerably over the course of his 2022 season. Specifically, Cruz explained that he’d had difficulty picking up the spin on pitches.
Whether due to the vision troubles, his age or some combination of the two, Cruz indeed had his worst season since establishing himself as a big league regular way back in 2008. Signed by the Nationals to a one-year, $15MM contract in March, Cruz went on to bat just .234/.313/.337. He homered just ten times as a National — far and away his lowest total in any of his 14 seasons as a regular. Cruz even homered 16 times during the 60-game 2020 season and had otherwise never hit fewer than 22 long balls in a full big league campaign.
Prior to his one-year stint in D.C., Cruz remained a highly productive designated hitter with the Twins. In parts of three seasons with Minnesota, he batted .304/.386/.598 with 76 home runs in 1081 trips to the plate. Minnesota traded Cruz to the Rays in a July 2021 deal that netted them righty Joe Ryan, however, and Cruz began to struggle at the plate with Tampa Bay. The timing of that downturn in production aligns roughly with the timeline Cruz laid out when discussing his eye troubles.
Any team that signs Cruz would likely need a clear vacancy at designated hitter. Cruz hasn’t played an inning in the outfield since 2018 with the Mariners, though the Rays did give him one game (seven innings) at first base late in the 2021 campaign. Still, it’d be a stretch for any of the Dodgers (J.D. Martinez), Red Sox (Justin Turner, with Rafael Devers and Triston Casas at the infield corners), Tigers (Miguel Cabrera), Angels (Shohei Ohtani), Yankees (Giancarlo Stanton), Marlins (Jorge Soler), Giants (Joc Pederson, with Michael Conforto and Mitch Haniger in the outfield corners) or Astros (Yordan Alvarez, Michael Brantley, Kyle Tucker) to squeeze Cruz into the mix, unless he were willing to accept a role as a pure bench bat. That said, given his lack of defensive ability, Cruz may not appeal to clubs as an option off the bench.
Cruz didn’t tip his hand as to when he might make a decision on a team for the forthcoming season and gave no indication as to whether the offers he’s received are ones he is strongly considering. He and agent Bryce Dixon have plenty of time to deliberate, of course, but Cruz has a rather full plate at the moment; he’s serving as the general manager for the Dominican Republic’s team in this year’s World Baseball Classic and also plans to play in the event.
Welcome back to Seattle, BOOMSTICK!
I’d take a chance on him as a DH.
Rangers?
Maybe? I could also see the Rays and Red Sox looking for some cheap power from relatively open DH spots.
Red Sox signed Justin Turner to DH
I hope the rangers offered him a contract tbh.
C’mon Nelson. Fess up. All you’re getting after last year’s .1 bWar are non roster invitee spring training signings. He’s going to be this year’s Cano if he keeps playing.
Freezing cold take alert.
Must retire.
a positive WAR is good! there is lots of players that have negative WAR. He was better than the replacement!
If his eye situation has cleared up and he can see the spin on the ball now, I see no reason why someone wouldn’t at least give him a shot in spring training. I’d say the White Sox because he is probably in their embarrassing low budget, but the whole team is nothing but DHs.
Sox have Eloy!
Muted!
Lol. Cano is still going to cash $22m in checks from Steve Cohen this year. Since getting Diaz out of Seattle required the Mets to take on Cano they’ll be paying something like $50m for Diaz’s services this year.
Last hurrah tour at 1/3 for Rangers with 2 mil in incentives if he reaches 35 HR and/or 90RBI
He needs to retire with dignity. No one wants to see him play as a shadow of his former self.
He’s 42… he didn’t have a down year, he did something incredible at that age. And he likely will not get any better with or without any kind of surgery. He needs to retire and spend his hard earned money and live a happy life.
Pujols was 42 this season and it didn’t hold him back. Just Verlander some guys do very well in their later years.
They are the exception not the norm. Verlander came off a CY Young Year and Pujols was traded and then he improved a bit. Nelson Cruz is more likely than not to be done.
I want him back. Idk how he learned how to hit after leaving Texas, when he was busted for PEDs in Texas. Maybe he started taking more/better PEDs once he left? Or, my memory may be off and he got caught after Texas. Can someone verify?
He never tested positive so the exact timing of when he used ban substance will largely be up for debate. But rather, he was suspended for his involvement in the Biogenesis Scandal that also caught Alex Rodriguez among others.
He was suspended while he was with Orioles for that involvement if I remember correctly.
Further, it is ignorant to assume continued use. We cannot know whether anyone is using until he tests. He did his time for the crime and I’m sure he’s been tested plenty of times since without a positive test.
Really hope the Braves are in on him. We need a power bat badly.
He could take turns with d’Arnaud as the DH, and when Murphy needs a break.
As of right now, they’re basically going to be running with a bench consisting of Arcia, d’Arnaud/Murphy, Ozuna/Rosario, and one of either Luplow, Hillard, or White, and if they carry three catchers then Chadwick Tromp would also take up a spot.
Whichever catcher isn’t starting will likely get the bulk of the DH duties, and then they will share those duties with whoever isn’t in LF out of either Rosario or Ozuna will start.
I’d be pretty pissed off if I was d’Arnaud. He helped the team to six straight division titles I’m a very tough NLE and ws title in 21. Now they bring in another strong catcher which they didn’t even need and now they’re pushing d’Arnaud to a part time job? On the other hand, it could be good for d’Arnaud because it will help him rest his knees.
Justin, bring Nelly back home to Seattle for 1 year. Do it, do it!
Padres…..platoon with Carp at DH and PH off the bench.Team needs some veteran bench depth.
Padres are the perfect fit for him.
I wonder if teams are more willing nowadays to carry a player who cannot play defense and is only a pinch hitter who occasionally plays DH. Perhaps more than people think.
Rosters now carry 26 players. Most teams want 13 pitchers. I think that a lot of teams might have a bit of trouble carrying 13 hitters and getting them all enough plate appearances. Some might some might have the opposite problem.
40 years ago, did most teams have 10 pitchers and 15 hitters? How did the hitters get enough work? I wonder if players were less likely to start 150+ games a year back then. Perhaps this makes Cal Ripken Jr.’s streak even more impressive.
I looked at Willie Mays, Pete Rose, and Cal Ripken Jr. Essentially from three different eras in the sport but in each case over 15+ yr careers they played and an average of 149-155 games per year for that stretch all of them logged more than 10000 AB in their careers. I would infer from that info from Baseball REference that in their eras there were likelier fewer ABs for bench players than today, because off the top of my head players, today usually seem to avg 120-140 games per year. Back in his prime, it was not unusual for Pudge Rodriquez to catch 135 + games on average and three times he topped 145. whereas Y. Molina did that once in 18 yrs. I used the C position for 90s-20s comparisons as they usually seem to be in more games than other positions. I think their benches were likely larger than today but less frequently used.
Unlike players decades ago, today’s players don’t have a lot of incentive to play as much or return from injuries. They’d rather sit on their wallets and clown around in the dugout than rush back. Yesterday’s players wouldn’t let an injured pinky or a leg injury stop them from playing because they loved the game and wanted to play. It was a different day.
Sorry for the technicality, but Pudge only caught 145+ games in a season once. He played in 145+ games multiple times, but he was the DH for a handful of games in those seasons.
There wasn’t a difference as to how many pitchers a team can have on their roster until last year, or maybe 2020. Another one of Manfred’s idiotic rules. The further back you go, you won’t find too many part time players, or pitchers who were pulled after five innings. No field player wanted to be taken out of games for one reason: Wally Pip.
Wonder if IL rules might play a role here too. When IL assignments were 15 days (or longer) for position players, a team probably needed to fill its bench with enough versatile defensive players to manage through day-to-day injuries. But with only a 10-day IL, a team might be more likely to use IL placements to call up healthy backup players when needed. So they can carry more bat-first players on their bench.
You mean the Vogel song affect. He will have someone run for him as well
This is just anecdotal: 40 years ago, teams were definitely carrying less pitchers on the roster. Starters and closers pitched more innings. Some went on shorter rest between starts. Middle relievers routinely went two/three innings. The higher workload and less advanced medical care overall resulted in players having shorter careers. A bench player was just that and you wouldn’t see them get 200 AB’s a season like today’s super-util guys. It wasn’t a rarity to see players play 158-162 games per season.
Cal Ripken’s consecutive game streak is pretty much untouchable and I was glad to witness him on TV topping Gehrig’s record.
It makes you wonder what Gehrig’s stars would been if he played out his career. Same with Ted Williams who lost years of playing time while fighting in WW 2 and the Korean war.
@avenger65 i wonder the same thing or if stan musial would of gotten into the 500 club if it wasn’t for missing 3+ years in ww II (stan hit 475 hrs)
You’re right, and it wasn’t uncommon for pitchers to have 30 complete games a year, some of the Yankees older pitches did. I’m sure they were not alone.
Cruz appears to be the perfect old ,over the hill buy low player that Cashman loves. I wanted to him you are a girls and he was actually good, but cashman did not appear to be interested. Then . Unless they’re willing to budging play Stanton in the field more often, there’s no obvious fit though for Nelson.
France, Teoscar, Julio and… Nelson
He would be a good pick as a replacement for Albert for the redbirds as the veteran, get most of the days at DH when other guys need a day off role.
Exactly would I’ve been thinking.
Unless I was a team looking for a veteran presence on the bench I wouldn’t sign Cruz over guys like Mancini, Yuli, or even Edwin Rios
Mariners, Rangers, A’s, Brewers, Reds, Cardinals, Rockies, Rays, Padres, Cubs, Orioles, Marlins (Soler could play the OF), and the Twins all could be possible destinations for Cruz depending on what he’s asking for
Rockies don’t need a DH-only player. Blackmon and Cron should get most of the games there.
Wasn’t be caught using PED’s? i.e. another sleazebag like Tatis?
Cardinals with their special hitter sauce they found for Pujols, Goldschmidt, and Arenado? 900+OPS if he does. Draft him before rd 10 fantasy.
He’s DONE!!!!