Under Andy Haines the Bucs were looking to make hard contact with hard swings while navigating an AB swinging in the hitters hot zones. Essentially Haines preached when you swing, make it count.
The Pirates this offseason and at the trade deadline changed their hitting profile to more like swing at the strikes and square the ball up with slower swings even if the outcome is not hard contact as shown with the signings of Spencer Horwitz, IKF, and Adam Frazier.
I think the switch to a contact oriented approach with lower hard hit rates is the way to go for a team with limited resources, but only to "fill out" a lineup. Having these players allows you to play "small ball". These hitters should be the supplements filling out the bottom of the order, not hitting in the top 5. Horwitz is the exception here because he also hits the ball at a well enough angle to also generate power despite a slow swing.
But what if you have a hitter who squares the ball up with fast swings leading to high exit velocities, and what if this he is the best in the league at it? Oneil Cruz is becoming that type of hitter.
Statcast has a name for those type of hits when the ball is squared up and leaves the bat fast. It is call a blast, and Oneil Cruz is looking to be the Baron of it.
Besides his "cup of coffee" in 2021, Oneil Cruz is setting career marks this year in average exit velocity, hard hit %, and squaring the ball. He is also swinging the bat at the same speed and length, so there are no adjustments to his swing. He is just seeing the ball better with experience (and possibly Matt Hague), and this is what we were waiting for.
Coming back to statcast blasts, a blast is specifically "squaring-up" the ball with a "fast swing". Last year, Cruz was 16th in the league with 175 total blasts, and out of 206 qualified hitters he was 5th in blasts per contact at 25.4%. He was also 10th in blasts per swing. So far this year 11th in total blasts, 1st in blasts per contact, and 4th in blasts per swing. Cruz's bat is heating up lately, and he should only hit more blasts more often the rest of the year until he finially is the baron of blast.