At least that’s what Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Ben Cherington once confirmed on his weekly show 93.7 The Fan. radio show.

“I’m not answering your question,” Cherington admitted, attempting to transition between several points during his nearly four-minute answer.

The detailed answer came after a question from Pirates commentator Greg Brown, who asked if the organization wanted to keep Oneil Cruz at shortstop or if they were considering an offseason position change given his issues with the field this season.

What followed was a response from Cherington that felt like he was trying to be as definitive as possible while at the same time fully non-binding.

“All I can tell you right now is he’s our shortstop,” Cherington said.

If the answer had stopped at this pointI may have Strictly speaking believed him.

In the same breath, however, Cherington added, “If there’s ever a point in the future where we really feel like what’s best for O’Neil Cruz and what’s best for the team are different, then we’ll have that conversation and revisit it.”

OK. No joke.

ApparentlyYesAt some point “in the future,” when Cruz is 35 and still playing for the Pirates, management should surely ask him what he thinks about the first base or designated hitter position.

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Clearly, However, given Cruz’s previous defeats in 2024, Brown did not ask for a nebulous time in the 2030s. He was apparently Inquired about next year and how the franchise planned to handle this offseason issue.

“Until we are ready to have that conversation, there is not much point in going into it any further,” Cherington continued. “I know from my experience own Past experience – and you can see this throughout the game – many really great players make it to the major leagues and stay in one position for their entire career. Many really Great players come to the major leagues at one position, then leave that position and end up somewhere else.”

It seems as though Cherington wanted to appear as determined as possible to keep Cruz at shortstop, but at the same time give himself an emergency exit should the team change its mind this winter.

This is the art of being a Major League General ManagerI guess. Say so much that by the end of your quote you actually haven’t said anything.

If Cherington is truly committed to keeping Cruz as shortstop, it shouldn’t take nearly four minutes to explain why.

In reality, he is undecided because it is not an easy answer. It is a difficult decision.

Cherington made these comments just hours before his team lost in the end a 10-3 game against the Seattle Mariners in which Cruz committed his 24th error of the season, the second-highest error rate in MLB this season.

“We felt at the beginning of the year and still feel today that the best thing for Oneil Cruz and the best thing for the Pirates is the same thing: playing shortstop,” Cherington said of the team’s 2024 hiring. “Because if he can play at a high enough level and play offensively at the level that we think he can, that’s something unique because not many teams have a shortstop that can do those things offensively. So it’s to our advantage and we believe to Oneil Cruz’s advantage to give him every chance to figure that out.”

Agreed. That made sense to start the year. And it might still make sense to start in 2025 if She doubt that Cruz is playable another position would be better – or she wouldn’t even be willing to seriously try.

As TribLive Pirates sports journalist Kevin Gorman recently told us on the podcast “Breakfast With Benz”When the Pirates experimented with Cruz in the outfield during spring training a few years ago, he gave him “a grade 1 out of 10 performance.”

If that’s the case, it will likely take “level 10 of 10” coaching to make Cruz better at shortstop or get him to switch positions. That’s certainly something we haven’t seen in the development of the Pirates’ outfielders over the years.

Either way, I bet that the conversation with Cruz will last longer than four minutes.

As it should be.

I hope for his sake that Cherington will determined in conveying the message he wanted to send when he tried on Sunday.