5 fantasy baseball waiver wire replacements for Pirates SS Oneil Cruz

1 of 3

Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz will be out for quite a while after ankle surgery, and here are four replacement options to consider off the waiver wire in your fantasy baseball league.

It looked bad in the moment on Sunday, and on Monday looks were proven correct. According to the team, after initial reports he’d miss 10-12 weeks, Pittsburgh Pirates shortshop Oneil Cruz will be out for four months after undergoing surgery on his fractured left ankle.

Cruz had a promising 87-game run with the Pirates last season, with 17 home runs, 54 RBI, 10 stolen bases and Statcast batted ball numbers that were eye-popping. This year was lined up to be a full season step, but now he’ll be out until at least August based on the Pirates’ timeline.

Shortstop can be a hard spot to fill off the fantasy baseball waiver wire, with notable multi-category contributors just not there. Cruz can ideally, in leagues that have them of course, be stashed in an IL spot until further notice. In leagues without an IL spot or IL spots, it may become tough to hang onto him for four months.

In any case, Cruz’s fantasy managers are now left to find a way to replace him in their lineups. Here are five options to consider off the waiver wire.

5 fantasy baseball waiver wire replacements for Oneil Cruz

Note: Rostered rates are as of Monday afternoon, April 10.

5. Rodolpho Castro, Pittsburgh Pirates

Castro immediately moved from second base to shortstop after Cruz was injured, so he looks to be the immediate in-house replacement for the Pirates.

Castro only has three hits in 17 at-bats so far this season. But in 71 games for the Pirates last year, he showed a bit of an interesting power (11 home runs) and speed (five stolen bases) combo, and over the last two seasons across the levels he’s played he hit 33 home runs and stole 14 bases.

Castro is definitely more of an NL-only league add to try to fill the void left by Cruz, but in deeper mixed leagues he’s at least worth pinning to a watch list. He’s eligible at second and third base off the bat, and Yahoo! has already added shortstop eligibility for him.

ESPN Ownership: 0.5%
Yahoo! Ownership: 2%

Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Geraldo Perdomo/Nick Ahmed, Arizona Diamondbacks

Rolling two Diamondbacks into one spot here.

Perdomo has back-to-back multi-hit games coming into the new week. Over 22 plate appearances so far this season (entering Monday), he’s got seven hits, four extra base hits , eight RBI and four walks. He started at second base on a rest day for Ketel Marte Sunday, as Ahmed is being brought along slowly after shoulder surgery last year.

Perdomo may make it hard to take him out of the lineup, and Ahmed is also off to a nice start this season (.333/.333/.381 slash-line, three stolen bases).

Perdomo and Ahmed are both worth a look in NL-only leagues, with Perdomo carrying a little multi-position utility (third base in Yahoo leagues).

Perdomo ESPN Ownership: 3.9%
Perdomo Yahoo! Ownership: 8%

Ahmed ESPN Ownership: 0.3%
Ahmed Yahoo! Ownership: 1%

3. Brice Turang, Milwaukee Brewers

We’re stretching a little bit here, as Turang has only played second base for the Brewers so far this season after making the roster coming out of spring training. But he’s shortstop-eligible in fantasy baseball, so he makes this list.

Turang has cooled just a bit lately, but he’s still hitting .304 with a home run, five RBI, two stolen bases and five runs scored this season entering Monday. He had 34 steals (caught just twice) with 13 home runs and 78 RBI in Triple-A last year, so the speed-sneaky power combo automatically makes him interesting in fantasy. Especially as a shortstop/middle infield type.

ESPN Ownership: 13.6%
Yahoo! Ownership: 31%

Credit: Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images /

2. Jorge Mateo, Baltimore Orioles

An ankle injury that cost him a game over the weekend appears not to be a thing, as Mateo was back in the lineup Sunday and he is in the lineup on Monday as of this writing. He’s hitting .318 with two home runs, five RBI and five stolen bases so far this season. In an obvious small sample, his walk rate early this season is more than double what his walk rate was in 2022.

In 150 games last year for the Orioles, Mateo hit 13 home runs and stole 35 bases. With a better approach, which again he has shown early signs of, a big season could be in store for him in 2023 and this might be the ground floor.

Mateo’s speed and glove will keep him in the lineup, and while he likely won’t sustain a batting average above .300 something in the .270 range could be sustainable.

Mateo’s ownership rates are very different on ESPN and Yahoo!, but they may even out a lot now. He is definitely worth checking on if you need to replace Cruz in a mixed league.

ESPN Ownership: 37.8%
Yahoo! Ownership: 67%

1. Orlando Arcia, Atlanta Braves

Arcia surprisingly earned the starting job at shortstop for the Braves in the spring, over the highly touted Vaughn Grissom most notably. But so far he’s justifying the decision, hitting .316 with two home runs, four RBI and nine runs scored.

Once a top-10 prospect in all of baseball (Baseball America and MLB.com pre-2016), Arcia is a bit of a post-hype sleeper. While hitting in the bottom-third of the Atlanta lineup is not necesarily fully optimal for fantasy production, simply being in the Braves’ lineup every day works just fine.

There's definitely luck factors in Orlando Arcia's favor through the first week (BABIP & HR/F), especially considering the heavy groundballs.

But he's hitting the ball harder with 26.4% of his BBE of 100+ mph since 2022 versus 17% (2016-2021), not including Thursday (4/6/23). pic.twitter.com/C04Q0cHou5
— Corbin (@corbin_young21) April 7, 2023

Fantasy managers have been slow get on the Arcia bandwagon, but being a shortstop in the wake of Cruz’s major injury stands to change that. He’s also eligible at second base in ESPN leagues and in second base as well as the outfield in Yahoo! leagues.

ESPN Ownership: 18.1%
Yahoo! Ownership: 53%

dark. Next. Marcus Stroman gives WBC credit

Home / Fantasy Baseball