New Yankees pitcher Fernando Cruz gets the call for some Mother’s Day Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: What does Mother’s Day mean to you?
A: I’m really grateful with the Lord for giving me the mother that I had for 31 years. Mother’s Day’s just special, never gets old for me. I’m also really grateful for my wife. I think she’s the MVP of everything that I’ve done, everything that I’m doing right now, where I’m at. She’s been the wise woman that every man needs.
Q: Describe your mother Virginia for me.
A: She was the woman that taught me to keep going, and don’t matter if you’re in an adversity moment, it don’t matter what you’re going through, there’s always a step forward. I grew up watching her going through struggles, going through adversity, going through stuff that came up surprisingly, and she just handled it the way you’re supposed to handle it. Every negative moment she found the positive stuff. I think that is something that we all need to put into perspective. … She was just a warrior, and I think I took that from her. I am where I am because of the values and everything she taught me.
Q: What was the worst struggle that she had to overcome?
A: She was from Dominican, she came illegal to Puerto Rico. She needed to reinvent herself in Puerto Rico without paperwork. Without, like, being legal, it’s really tough. Like, you cannot work anywhere or however you want, you just gotta find a good work for you to be able to sustain. She had three kids in Dominican that she had send money to. She was just impressive the way she handled everything. When I was a little kid, one day she went to a house that was abandoned, and she said, “I’m gonna buy that house.” I remember that like it was right now. A year-and-a-half later, she bought the house. They approved the house for her. I remember it was $50,000 at the moment. For her to be able to pay the monthly loan, she had to reinvent herself in a lot of ways. … There was this mini-market, this like business place right in front of the house that used to be from an old gentleman. She offered to buy the business place, and he told her, “No, I’m not gonna sell it, but I can rent it to you.” And I remember she rented that place for five years. … My mom became an entrepreneur because she was so smart with numbers and stuff. … I saw her going through struggles, but she never quit, and she always told me, “Keep going ’cause the Lord has something special for you.”
Fernando Cruz’s and his mother.Courtesy of Fernando Cruz
Q: It would take 15 years to make it to the big leagues. The very first time she told you to keep going, what was going on that made her say that to you?
A: It was 2011. I just got converted to pitching. My conversion to pitching was really, really tough. Obviously, it wasn’t that bad physically talking, but mentally it was really hard. I was 21 years old and I was in extended spring. It’s really tough, especially in Arizona when it’s 119 (chuckle). I had an outing that I gave up like three runs in an inning. My arm was hurting. I was just starting pitching, and I called her crying. I was desperate, like, “Mom, I don’t want to lose anymore time. This is becoming really, really, really, like, hard for me, baseball and stuff.” It was the only time I think I doubt. I had one time that I doubt. And it was that time. But she just straight up tell me, “You know what? You’re there for a reason. You’re there with a purpose. Keep going ’cause He has something really special for you. But it’s gonna be tested. You’re gonna have to really, really work. It’s not gonna be given to you.” So from that moment on, I embrace those words, and I grab ’em with all my heart, and every time I struggled for an outing, for a week, for a month, I just had that in the back of my mind, and it just give me that willing to keep going, and never abandon those words.
Q: Even now?
A: Even now, yeah, even now I have it, and I’m living the special moment she told me that the Lord had for me.
Fernando Cruz’s mother.Fernando Cruz/Instagram
Q: How did she pass away?
A: She had brain cancer. She survived two breast cancers. They cut both of ’em. She survived one when I was like 7 or 8 years old, and the other one she had it when I was like 22. I never see her down, I never see her weak, her weaknesses, even though she was going through a life-threatening disease like breast cancer. So she was a survivor twice, and in 2021 she passed away, she had a real bad headache. We took her to a hospital, it was metastasis, and it took three weeks for her to pass away. I thank God because she didn’t suffer in a bed. She made a deal, like, “You put my guys in the best situation, and I go with you.”
Q: How did she become a Yankees fan?
A: In Puerto Rico, YES Network, we all have cable where I’m from and we always listen to YES Network. I saw what it takes to be a Yankee — the discipline, the strictness, The Boss, the rules. I started looking into the culture, and it really helped me become a good human. You have to be like this if you want to be a Yankee. There’s no one human that plays baseball in the history of this universe that do not want to become a Yankee one day. I think you play baseball, you want to be a Yankee at least for one day.
Yankees pitcher Fernando Cruz (63) reacts after ending the seventh inning when the New York Yankees played the San Diego Padres Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY.Robert Sabo for NY Post
Q: Describe your wife Omaley.
A: A wise woman, the helpful woman that anybody, that any man needs. She’s the example of being a warrior with three kids alone in Puerto Rico … school, baseball … a little girl that’s just 3 years old, taking care of everything in the house, taking care of business that we have. She’s just unbelievable. She’s just been that person that anything that can distract me, anything that can put pressure on me, she takes it away, she absorbs it, and she takes care of it for me to be able to concentrate and do what I’m doing right now. Omaley is just another warrior that God sent me to just keep going when the struggles are there just to look up to the Lord. She always encourages me to believe in the Lord, to believe that nothing is impossible for Him. She’s the one that pushes me in the offseason, there’s those mornings that I don’t want to wake up.
Q: Why do you get so emotional after a strikeout?
A: It’s just a way to throw away, like, everything you work for. A strikeout for me means I end up an at-bat, I pick up my team, I pick up the fans. I try to control my emotions a lot, but sometimes you just have to let it out, with a lot of respect for the other team. But sometimes you have to let it out ’cause it’s the passion I have for the game, it’s the passion I have for my team, the passion I have for my teammates. And I think every strike I execute, I’m picking up my teammates. I’m helping my team win — I’m helping my dream team win in key situations. It’s impossible not to be emotional.
Q: When you’re on the mound and you watch what your splitter does, do you ever say to yourself, “Wow, I can’t believe the ball just did that?”
A: Yes. You know why I said that? It’s not because it surprises me, but I don’t even understand that pitch. Nobody can understand it. It’s something that is a gift from God. Straight from above. I grab the ball and I throw it with all my mechanics, obviously I worked with it a lot, but it’s not something that I have everything to tell you it is like this, it is like that. I don’t have any details to tell anyone. A lot of people ask me about the grip, I give to ’em. But it’s just something that is supernatural, it’s coming from above. It’s my gift, and I’m not gonna say anything different than it’s just my gift from God.
Fernando Cruz with his wife, Omaley Cruz, and kids.Courtesy of Fernando Cruz
Q: What will it be like in your first Subway Series next weekend at Yankee Stadium?
A: It’s gonna be an intense one. It’s gonna be a great one because the fans are gonna make it that way. But I think between the teams, there’s no, like, hate, there’s nothing personal between us. I think the fans are gonna make it really, really enjoyable. It’s gonna be a World Series atmosphere.
Q: Are you looking forward to pitching against Juan Soto?
A: If you want to be a good pitcher in the big leagues, you gotta be able to execute pitches against those guys.
Q: What is so special about Soto?
A: The guy is really conscious of the strike zone. He doesn’t swing at bad pitches. You have to really come into the strike zone to get the guy out. It’s what makes him special. If you come in, and he’s looking for a pitch, he’s not gonna miss it. And if he does it, he’s not gonna do it a lot of times.
Q: You got Aaron Judge to ground into a double play last July.
A: Man, that was one of the best moments of my life, my career. It was my first time at Yankee Stadium pitching. It was a special moment for me being able to just say, “I’m gonna compete with this guy.”
Yankees pitcher Fernando Cruz (63) celebrates San Diego Padres catcher Luis Campusano (12) being tagged out at home during the seventh inning when the New York Yankees played the San Diego Padres on Monday, May 5, 2025.Robert Sabo for NY Post
Q: Describe what happens to you on the mound.
A: When I get on the mound, it’s the time to really focus all the energy since I wake up to that moment. I don’t even look at who’s hitting. I don’t even look at things. I don’t even look at face. I just have work to do, and I concentrate in making it happen. I’m learning every day how to take away thoughts, thinking about anything else but this next pitch. I’m 35, I’m still learning how to do it. Concentrate, execute, and at the end of the day, it’s just about having fun. But you only have fun when you do good. I teach my kids, if you don’t have discipline, you will not be able to succeed. If you don’t succeed, you’re not gonna enjoy the game of baseball.
Q: You’ve been a closer. Did you enjoy that?
A: I see pitching really, really different. I see it and I feel it like there’s no role for me. Sometimes, to be honest with you, sometimes for me there’s no difference between the sixth, the seventh, the eighth or the ninth inning. I don’t believe in roles. I believe in I have a job to do and I’m gonna do my job.
Q: What is your best baseball moment?
A: I have two best moments in my life. First one was my first time in Yankee Stadium last year with the Reds. And pitching for Puerto Rico in the [World Baseball Classic in] 2023 against Dominican.
Q: Your worst baseball moment?
A: The worst baseball moment was April 2023, it was my first time I lose time because I had a rotator cuff strain. I felt horrible. I was going through anxiety, I was going through depression I could say, and had to talk to pastors, had to talk to mentors in Puerto Rico, had to use a lot of resources to get out of that hole. But thanks to the Lord, we came back and everything was good.
Q: You were involved in a 2016 brawl in the minor leagues with the New Jersey Jackals?
A: Wow! I have something to say about that. Because it’s the first person that ask me that. And I was waiting for that question since April 2022, I was in Triple-A. I remember that day, I strike out the side and closed the game, and I couldn’t sleep. I was so sure that something big was gonna happen later that year. And that question was gonna come up. But it didn’t come up till now. The Lord had me awake for that whole night, and I started writing the answer for that. And I have it in my phone. (Takes out phone, finds it, and reads from phone): That was the moment I need to really understand that this world need my Lord, because I already was following and already had accepted Him in my life, but that moment made me depend on him completely and learn about what His word so now in this precise moment I can talk about it and praise his name because, as you can see, this world made from him. There’s a lot of great things in my life that everyone could ask a lot of accomplishment, and we are here right now talking about me running behind a catcher to fight the other team, and it [did] not bother me at all because that was the moment that told me what I need in order for me to be here in front of you guys right now. It was the moment that now it tells the world how God can really transform and restore a life that was close to be destroyed completely, and He came on time to say, “I’m here and come with me and watch what I can do.” From that moment on, he show the world that: He has chosen those who have no importance in the world, to dethrone those whom the world considers great. … Because you don’t know how many people laugh in my face, in my agent’s face, when we were doing our respective jobs, me putting [up] zeros, striking everyone out, and him making and reaching about every organization and knocking on every door and people laugh at his face. But those were the moments that got me even close and dependent of my Lord, and he kept telling me to go that he will do big things, and, boy, he wasn’t wrong. Here I am talking about what the enemy wanted to do against me and my family, God made it and converted to His glory. … Every time I go somewhere I bring my phone because I wanted somebody to ask me for that.
Fernando Cruz with his wife, Omaley Cruz, and kids.Fernando Cruz/Instagram
Q: I’m glad I came through! You charged the other dugout, right?
A: Yeah, I was going through a lot. My life was going down. I was losing my wife at the moment. I was in a really horrible situation mentally, psychologically. I think I needed that moment to realize where I was. I went behind the catcher, and I went to straight to the guys that were provoking me. They were saying a lot of stuff. It was like the third fight during that game. I wanted no part of anything. They kept telling me stuff, but it was meant to happen. I needed that moment to realize where I was in life.
Q: Why do you wear No. 63?
A: It was just a number they gave me in Cincinnati when I first came up to the big leagues, and I think I’m gonna stick with it till the end of my career.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Jesus. My mom. I would love to talk to Mariano Rivera a whole night, pick his brain.
Yankee pitcher Fernando Cruz.J.C. Rice
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “National Security.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Martin Lawrence.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Pork, rice with potato salad.
Q: If there was a movie about your life, what would the title be?
A: Adversity Is a Blessing.
Q: Which actor would you want to play you?
A: I think I can handle it (smile). If it’s a movie about my life — obviously, the expert of that industry would know — but if I can do it, I will do it.
Q: What are you most proud of you being here now?
A: I think the testimony of believing the Lord, believing in his work, and believing in that nothing is impossible for him, and everything is possible through him. That’s the best message I can get from this journey that I’m living, and I think that’s the best message, advice, testimony and a way of giving back to others that have no hope or no way to start. … He made the impossible possible.
Yankees relief pitcher Fernando Cruz (63) pitches in the sixth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium.IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Q: Do you hope that you’re an inspiration to people?
A: I don’t have short-, medium- or long-term goals. I live day by day because I know my Lord has the control of my future and everything, so I have to worry only about today. But if I have one goal in my life, it’s to leave a legacy for my kids. It’s to be an inspiration, and being able to teach them how to be an inspiration for others, and how to serve humanity.
Q: What do you like best about this Yankees team?
A: We’re really together. We have a bond that I think it’s gonna take us a long, long, long way. I’ve never been around a human special like Aaron Judge. He’s somebody that if you want to be successful, if you want to be a leader and you want to be somebody impactful, you have to know about that guy. He’s an unbelievable human that makes you feel really, really important. That’s the No. 1 characteristic about a leader. He holds everybody up while he’s down, and he makes you feel really important. He handles success exactly the way you have to handle success in a sport like baseball.
Q: What is your message to Yankees fans?
A: Expect the best from me any time I go out there, and I will not rest till we accomplish what we strive. … There’s big things coming for the Yankees.
