Phillies

Pittsburgh Radio Guy Says Phillies One of the Teams Interested in Oneil Cruz

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 24th, 2025 · 10:56 AM EDT

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Andrew Fillipponi is one of the hosts at 93.7 out in Pittsburgh:

Source: The Phillies are one of the teams that’s trying to trade for Pirates CF Oneil Cruz. Philly has gotten terrible play in CF this year. And they are interested in seeing what Cruz could do in a lineup with Harper Schwarber and Turner. Good veteran influences. Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/wLmSG02yrO

— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) July 24, 2025

Cruz is a guy who hasn’t put it all together. Big guy, built like a horse, 26 years old, five seasons in Pittsburgh, but he’s only hitting .219 this season and chases a ton and strikes out a ton. Seems like a perfect fit! You’d be banking on the change of scenery thing here, hoping that a guy who can hit the ball hard figures it out in a different spot. One Sportradar staffer noted that “he could just be bumming it in Pittsburgh because the Pirates suck,” which is a fair point. His defense isn’t amazing either. This is basically one of those things where you hope a switch unlocks latent potential and gets the guy going. Alternatively, you just could just call up Justin Crawford, or do this rumored Steven Kwan/Emmanuel Clase combo deal.