Charlie Klein
Almost everyone has heard Willie Nelson's "On The Road Again." In it, Nelson sings about his love of traveling and doing his thing in new cities to which he has never been. Nelson Cruz's career as a Major League Baseball player has run just like the song, except that I am willing to bet that Cruz would have been perfectly happy to settle down. And boy has he done so in Texas.
Not very many people know the story behind Nelson Cruz. Most around baseball are only familiar with the player from last season and his torrid start to 2010. What many may not know is what it took for Cruz to become the player he is today.
I am sure that Mets fans have been reminded that Nelson Cruz signed as an amateur free agent all the way back in 1998. Imagine how his bat could be helping them right now. After two unsuccessful years in the Mets system, Cruz was traded to the Oakland Athletics for shortstop Jorge Velandia on August 30, 2000. Velandia hit for a combined average of .190 while he was with the Mets over three seasons. I'm willing to bet then Mets General Manager Steve Phillips would like to have that deal back (amongst his many other regrettable transgressions).
Cruz never registered a major league at bat with the Oakland Athletics. He was again traded to the Milwaukee Brewers as part of a package for infielder Keith Ginter in 2004. Cruz only registered five major league at-bats with the Brew Crew before he was on the road again, this time part of a deal with the Texas Rangers as part of a deal that sent Carlos Lee to the Rangers in exchange for Laynce Nix, Kevin Mench, Francisco Cordero and Julian Cordero in 2006. Talk about a one sided trade. Of the package the Brewers got in return, only Francisco Cordero turned out to be as advertised.
It was in Texas that Nelson Cruz finally found a home. And his impact was immediate. On September 4, 2006, against the Athletics, Cruz hit a broken bat inside the park homerun. A simply unimaginable feat. But his time had not yet come.
During the 2008 season, Cruz tore up the Pacific Coast League, batting for a .342 average with 37 homeruns and 99 RBIs; and earned himself the PCL MVP Award in the process. By this point, he had managed to gain the attention of the Texas Rangers, who purchased his contract and put him on their 25 man roster in the 2009 season.
Up until 2009, Nelson Cruz had been the baseball equivalent of a migrant worker. Unwanted by three major league teams, he became almost as well traveled as George Clooney in Up In The Air. The combination of incredible perseverance and the right hitting coach catalyzed the fantastic hitter we all know today.
In 2009, Cruz took Major League Baseball by storm. Part of the Rangers youth movement, a movement of quite a few draft picks and false dawns that finally came together last season to form one of the most explosive offenses in the league, Cruz truly sparkled. He mashed 33 homeruns in his first full season in MLB and batted in 76 runs. And he finished second in the Home Run Derby to Prince Fielder.
And now in 2010 Cruz is off to another torrid start. He has hit six homeruns in the first eight games of the season, becoming the first player to accomplish that feat since Alex Rodriguez did the same for the New York Yankees in 2007.
His manager Ron Washington said, "Cruz hit 33 last year. All he's doing is showing it wasn't a fluke."
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