The Mets signed Cruz, then an international free agent, in 1998 before trading him to the A’s organization in 2000. After five seasons in the minors, he was 25 when he made his MLB debut with the Brewers in September ’05. He appeared in eight games before being dealt to the Rangers in July ’06. He was way too good to stay in the minors but struggled each time he was called up.
In 2008, after 10 years in professional baseball, Cruz didn’t make the Rangers’ Opening Day roster and was out of minor league options, so any team could have claimed him off waivers for $20,000. Nobody did. So he went back to Triple A, and, just as he had done over the last few years, he raked minor league pitching, posting a .342/.429/.695 slash line in 103 games, and earned yet another big-league call-up. This time, he was there to stay, thanks to a mechanical change. Earlier that year, Scott Servais, who was then the Rangers’ senior director of player development, had Cruz open his stance so he could better see incoming pitches and crush those that were previously jamming him on the inside part of the plate. Upon his return to the big leagues, he hit .330 and slugged .609 across 133 plate appearances, and solidified his spot as the team’s everyday right fielder. He was named to his first All-Star team the next year, his first full one in the majors and his age-28 season. Servais and Cruz would meet again in ’16, when Servais was named the manager of the Mariners, a job he still has today.
“We talk sometimes in this game about guys that could haunt you; ‘haunters,’ we call them,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said in 2010 to ESPN. “There are a lot of guys you trade or let go that you know are going to show up in the big leagues, but they are going to be replaceable-type players. Then there are some guys that have that ability where if it clicks, you’re going to be reading about this guy for a while. Nellie had that type of ability.”
The Rangers made back-to-back appearances in the 2010 and ’11 World Series. Though they lost both, the feared slugger was a major reason they got there. His most iconic performance came in Game 2 of the 2011 ALCS against the Tigers. He hit a game-tying home run in the seventh, and then in the 11th, he launched a walk-off grand slam to give Texas a 2–0 series edge.
Cruz was an All-Star for the second time in 2013, his last season with the Rangers. That same year, he was suspended 50 games for performance-enhancing drugs after he was connected to the Biogenesis scandal. He signed with the Orioles in ’14, when he led the league with 40 home runs and received another All Star nod before signing the four-year deal with Seattle, where he received two more All-Star selections.
Each passing year, Cruz has remained one of the game’s premier hitters. And with time, Cruz has also developed wisdom he passes on to younger players.
“Growing up as a player coming into the big leagues, I feel like I didn’t have that person that was helping me out,” Cruz says. “Since I came up as a veteran and a guy that can help others, that was one of my goals. I need to do the best I can to help those kids through this process so they can feel welcome to the league. They’re going to develop better as a player because the more relaxed you are, the better you’re going to be doing.”
David Richard/USA TODAY Sports
The Twins relied heavily on Cruz to mentor players like Miguel Sanó, and he’s applied his message of mentorship to his foundation Boomstick23, which emphasizes education and aims to empower children and youth in the Dominican Republic.
He has established education and technical centers in his native country, and brought in major league players to speak with the youth and share their experiences.
“Growing up, I saw my dad helping the community and doing whatever he could to have a better place. That’s an approach that I take in my foundation,” Cruz says. “Definitely we are fighting for so many things, and I think the most important part of all is education. We bring that message to the players who sign at a young age, ‘Don’t leave school, make sure you finish school.’ That’s the only one that can guarantee their future.”
Cruz says that Boomstick23’s next project includes building a computer center where kids and Dominicans can earn trade school degrees. Cruz says they have collected the money, spoken with the government and acquired land for the project. The project should take about a year, according to Cruz, but will help create jobs and help people have more opportunities in his community.
“God blessed me with my career. I have really good numbers through my career and because of baseball, I can also create my foundation,” Cruz says, “And through that you just have a better community in my hometown and all over the Dominican, and the places where I played in the past. So, [it] definitely has been a blast. I’m living my dreams, it makes me really happy to know that through hard work, you can accomplish all the things you want.”
