José Cruz Jr. - Baseball Coach - Rice University Athletics

José Cruz Jr.

Title:
Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach

One of the cornerstones of Rice’s rise to prominence in college baseball, José Cruz Jr. was named the 22nd head baseball coach at Rice on June 9, 2021. He became the Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach when the position was endowed through a gift by Bob and Betty Bixby in October of 2022.

In his first three seasons, Cruz expanded the Owls' data-driven approach to player development through cutting-edge technologies while also spearheading efforts to maintain Reckling Park’s status among the elite baseball venues at the college level. The Owls’ home saw the introduction of a synthetic playing surface before the 2023 season and CLIR2 Series High Performance LED Sports Lighting System from GEOSport Lighting in 2024.

Cruz’s third season at the helm saw the Owls steadily improve, matching regular-season champion East Carolina and postseason champ Tulane for the best record in the AAC over the final six weekends, while winning four of the last six series to earn a berth in the AAC Championship in the Owls’ first season in the league.

After the 2024 season, Parker Smith became the fifth Owl drafted in Cruz’s first three seasons and the highest drafted Owl since 2019 when the Houston Astros selected the Houston native in the fourth round.

Cruz returned to the Owls from the Detroit Tigers, where he was in his first season with the club as a coach, focusing on hitting instruction and working with the outfielders under manager A.J. Hinch.

He is the first former Rice player to be named as the Owls head baseball coach since Harold Stockbridge, who lettered from 1946-48 and guided the program from 1949-52. He joins Efe Ustundag (Men’s Tennis) and Jon Warren (Men’s Track and Cross Country) as former student-athletes who now serve as head coaches at Rice.

Cruz’s association with Rice began in 1992 when he chose to remain home and sign with the Owls after leading Houston’s Bellaire High School to the top ranking in the country in 1992. The signing of the local standout, whose father, Jose Cruz Sr., remains one of the most popular players in Houston Astros history, was a turning point in legendary coach Wayne Graham’s efforts to attract top talent to Rice.

In his first season, Cruz shared national freshman of the year honors from Collegiate Baseball, and he earned All-Southwest Conference honors after driving in a school-record 59 runs. A year later, he was the consensus conference player of the year and first-team All-America, hitting .401 with 14 home runs and breaking his school mark with 68 RBIs. Cruz helped propel the Owls to the conference tournament, starting a streak that would last until 2021.

By 1995, Graham’s efforts had built the Owls into a potent force and the team qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in history. Rice eliminated defending national champion LSU at the Tigers' home field in Baton Rouge before falling to eventual College World Series champion Cal-State Fullerton.

In 1995, his final season at Rice, Cruz hit .377 in 1995 with 16 home runs and 76 RBIs and led the nation with 76 walks. Seattle made him the third overall pick in that year’s MLB Draft.

Less than two years later, on May 31, 1997, he made his major league debut with Seattle but was traded to Toronto at the trade deadline at the end of July. He went on to finish second to Nomar Garciaparra in the 1997 American League Rookie of the Year voting, slamming 26 homers and driving in 68 runs in a combined 104 games between Seattle and Toronto.

He played the next five years with the Blue Jays, twice topping 30 home runs and he became a member of the 30-30 Club in 2001 by slamming 34 homers and stealing 32 bases. He became a free agent after the 2002 season and signed with San Francisco where he helped lead the Giants to the playoffs, hitting .250 with 20 homers and 68 RBI while winning a Gold Glove after committing only two errors in 360 chances. He led National League outfielders by turning seven double plays and set a San Francisco record for the franchise with 18 outfield assists.

He went on to play five additional seasons with the Rays, Diamondbacks, Red Sox, Dodgers and Padres before retiring as a member of the Houston Astros in 2008. While he was with the Astros, Cruz was reunited with a pair of former Rice teammates (Lance Berkman and Tim Byrdak), the first time three Owls were teammates at the major league level.

Hit .353 with a .476 on-base percentage over five games during the 2006 World Baseball Classic, helping Team Puerto Rico to the second round of play.

He batted .247/.337/.445 over his career, slugging 204 home runs, 252 doubles, and 36 triples, while also stealing 113 bases in 1,388 contests. Among the 181 players that had over 1,000 at-bats during the span of his career (1997-2008), Cruz Jr. stood out as having advanced speed, plate discipline, and fielding skills, ranking 32^nd in walk rate (12.1%), 33^rd in triples and 46^th in stolen bases. Of the 24 players over that span who logged at least 11,000.0 innings in the outfield, he ranked No. 12 with a .986 fielding percentage after committing just 40 errors.

Cruz’s Houston baseball roots run deep. His father, Jose Cruz, remains one of the most beloved players in Astros history. He retired as the Astros career leader with 1,937 hits in 13 seasons and he currently ranks third behind Hall of Famers Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell. He finished third in National League Most Valuable Player voting in 1980 while leading the Astros to their first divisional championship and a memorable playoff series against Philadelphia. He was twice named an NL All-Star and won a pair of NL Silver Slugger Awards.

His younger brother Enrique followed him to Rice and was the starting second baseman on the Owls' 2003 College World Series championship squad. After completing their playing careers, the two brothers returned to Rice to complete the requirements for their diplomas, which they received in 2013.

That same year, José joined the Major League Baseball Players Association’s player services department, where he remained until joining the Tigers’ coaching staff for the 2021 season.

Jose and his wife Sarah have three children, sons Trei and Antonio--who followed in their father’s footsteps to play at Rice--and a daughter, Alisa Loren, who attended SMU.

Trei was a three-year standout for the Owls from 2018-20 before being drafted by the Tigers in the third round of the 2020 MLB Draft. Antonio completed his collegiate career playing for his father in 2022.

Trei became the eighth member of the extended Cruz family to play professional baseball when he made his debut with the West Michigan White Caps in 2021.