'It was worth it': Fernando Cruz's perseverance leads to Reds bullpen, MLB debut

It’s fitting Fernando Cruz chose the Lion King’s “Circle of Life” as his walkout music before his relief appearances because he's lived it throughout his baseball career.

Promoted to the Major Leagues after rosters expanded in September, the 32-year-old Cruz became the oldest Reds player to make his Major League debut in 66 years when he pitched a scoreless inning Friday. He struck out two batters with his slider and was greeted by a long line of teammates ready to high-five him in the dugout.

"Realizing all the effort made before this happened, realizing that at the moment that I have to strike a big-league hitter out, is amazing," Cruz said. "This is what it’s all about. It was worth it, everything that I have done."

Cruz was the most popular player in the Reds’ clubhouse before Friday’s series opener against the Colorado Rockies. Anyone who spent a day in the Triple-A Louisville clubhouse walked up to him to give him a hug. Players who didn’t know him personally heard bits and pieces of his story, and they walked up to introduce themselves.

"I've never heard a story like this before," Joey Votto said on the Bally Sports broadcast. "This is the sort of thing they make movies about."

Cruz’s story is one of incredible perseverance. Looking at the websites that track stats paint a portrait of a guy who never lost faith in himself.

He was a sixth-round pick in 2007 by the Kansas City Royals out of Puerto Rico. He spent four years as a corner infielder and a catcher, but he didn’t advance past A-ball.

“Pitchers started to wear me out,” he said. “I wasn't doing really good.”

Cruz converted to a pitcher in 2011, an easier than expected transition because of his arm strength and physical conditioning, he said. The toughest part, however, is trying to find success immediately and keep a roster spot over guys who have been pitcher their entire lives.

He was released by the Royals at the end of the 2012 season. That’s where most of these stories end. He had an opportunity after he was drafted, toiling in the minor leagues for six years, and now he had nowhere to play.

Cruz kept pitching in Puerto Rican Winter League and his stats improved each year, which led to him signing with the Chicago Cubs before the 2015 season. He pitched one season in the Cubs’ farm system at High-A and Double-A, struggling at the latter stop, and he was released after participating in minor league spring training in 2016.

Again, it was another moment where careers end. It was remarkable he earned another shot in the minor leagues after a two-year absence.

“The game will test you,” Reds Manager David Bell said, “but I don’t think it’s tested many people quite like this.”

Cruz pitched for the New Jersey Jackals, an independent league team from the Canadian-American Association, from 2016-18. He pitched in the Venezuelan Winter League in 2017, the Mexican League in the fall of 2018, the Dominican Winter League in 2020, and he always played in the Puerto Rican Winter League each year.

Look at any Double-A roster and they are filled with players who don’t make it to the Major Leagues. Cruz went six years without pitching in any of the 30 MLB organizations. He kept his big-league hopes alive by playing in any country he could find a roster spot, but there was never a guarantee it would lead to anything.

“I was never thinking about this not happening,” Cruz said while wearing a gray Reds T-shirt on Friday. “I'm a real faithful guy. I put everything in my Lord's hands at all times. Since spring training, I've been preparing for this to happen. I've been telling people I don't know how He's going to do it, but He's going to do it. It's going to happen eventually. He's going to open the way for me to enjoy and share what He can do with a human. I never doubted.”

Cruz drew the attention of the Reds while pitching in the Mexican League last summer. He was one of the league’s best closers and the Reds followed his progress to the Mexican and Puerto Rican winter leagues.

Juan Silva, a Reds scout in Puerto Rico, filmed Cruz pitching in his home country and filed a report before the Reds signed him on Feb. 1.

The fact it was the Reds was special. He’s married to the daughter of Luis Quiñones, who spent four seasons with the Reds and was a backup infielder on the 1990 World Series champion team. Cruz’s wife, Omaley, was born in 1988 and hung around her dad during the title season.

“He's been telling me about the Reds since we met,” Cruz said. “Now I'm with the Reds.”

Earning a spot on a minor league team for the first time in more than a half-decade is an incredible feat. The rare times it happens, it’s usually from injuries or off-the-field issues. Cruz was a guy who refused to give up on his dream.

Pitching at Triple-A Louisville this season, Cruz had a 2.89 ERA with 23 saves. After giving up runs in four consecutive appearances in mid-June, he permitted four runs in his last 32 innings (1.13 ERA) while striking out 40 before receiving his call to the Major Leagues.

“It seems like he found a way to get better and better through whatever challenges he had to go through,” Bell said. “Going all the way back to his position player days, the (pitcher) transition, independent ball, Mexico, to get all the way back to the big leagues. I’m looking forward to getting to know the real story and really understanding from his point of view what that was like.”

After a game Wednesday, Louisville manager Pat Kelly convened the team for a rare team meeting. He faked a complaint about the Lime scooters players rode to the ballpark before telling Cruz he needed to take his scooter to Cincinnati.

An emotional moment for all players, but not all players had to wait as long as Cruz to make it a reality. When Cruz was asked about his family’s reaction, he said, “wow,” before pausing for a couple of seconds.

“It was emotional,” Cruz said. “We collapsed as a family when it happened. We were waiting for it. We worked so hard, me, my wife, my kids. My sister, my brothers, everybody was like, 'wow. You made it. You finally made it. We are so proud of you.' My country is so proud of what's going on with me, my story.”

After 391 games in the minor leagues, 271 as a position player and 120 as a pitcher, and 223 more games in foreign countries, Cruz was a Major Leaguer.

The coaching staff asked him to share his story to the team before Friday's game.

"I came here with a purpose," Cruz said. "Other than helping the team win, it’s all about serving. It’s all about helping people outside of baseball. I told them I’m a rookie in baseball, but in life, I have a really good experience and I’ve been through everything that you can imagine. I can help anyone who needs help in anything outside of baseball."

Cruz’s cell phone, he said, is “exploding” with messages. He apologized in a press conference for not having time to respond to everyone. Family and friends in Puerto Rico tell him it’s like a party there. He takes a lot of pride in his country, one reason why he always wanted to pitch in the Puerto Rican Winter League.

He knows the impact of his story. Fifteen years after his first game in rookie ball and he finally made it to the big leagues. It all hit him when he walked into the Reds’ clubhouse for the first time where he saw his nameplate and his No. 63 uniform.

“I will tell my kids and I will tell my grandkids about it because when I walked through that door I felt like, wow, it counted,” Cruz said. “Everything counted. Like, it's worth it to fight for what you want and fight for what your purpose is here on Earth.”

When Cruz stepped onto a big-league mound for the first time, he focused on keeping his mind simple. It's the same thing he's done hundreds of times whether it was in the minor leagues, winter ball, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela or Puerto Rico.

From Friday's debut, he kept a lineup card and two baseballs as mementos: his first pitch and his first strikeout.

"Nothing crazy went into my mind while I was doing it," he said, "but after I was done, I was like, ‘wow, what just happened?’"

When Cruz runs out of the Reds’ bullpen at Great American Ball Park, the “Circle of Life” song is expected to blast through the speakers, the intro to the Lion King where the King and Queen’s newborn son, Simba, is presented to the rest of the animals.

It has a Biblical meaning to Cruz as the Lion of Judah.

“When I hear the song,” Cruz said, “I always think, 'I got here. I'm here.’”

After 15 years, yes, Cruz is here. Exactly where he always thought he'd end up.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds pitcher Fernando Cruz persevered for 15 years to make MLB debut