Kevin Gorman

What he showed us yesterday is why I put him there.

He's a guy, if he can get on base, gets on base field, second base, fly ball moves him over to third, a

a sharp hit to right field by Ozuna scores Cruz, and you've got a guy who's capable of stealing bases.

You've got a guy who's capable of going from first to third or even first to home, you know, depending on it.

And you've got some guys behind him who can drive him in now.

You know, it's not just Brian Reynolds, but you've got Lyle Reynolds,

O'Hearn and Ozuna.

And so I like O'Neal Cruz with some, with some guys behind him that he's not just out there, you know, trying, trying to score runs on his own, but he can essentially just use his speed to his advantage.

But I also, you know, if you're not batting him first, where are you batting him fifth or sixth?

And I feel like for the power that he has, that's way too low in the order.

I don't, I don't think he's a good enough hitter to bat him second or third.

So to me, it's kind of either you're either talking one or six with the guys that they have in that order.

Well, you know, there's a lot of options.

I don't know if anybody's locked down the seventh-inning role or the eighth-inning role, but I think the eighth-inning role, the Pirates have good options.

You know, I just wrote about this this morning for Trib Live, is that Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana are locker mates.

They're both Dominicans.

They're good friends.

And they're guys who are kind of interchangeable as a lefty-righty, with Soto being the lefty and Santana the righty, that both have experience as closers, that both have experience as set-up men, and...

And they're both kind of willing to do whatever role the Pirates want to put them in.

Every reliever wants to be the closer.