He played in MLB for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers, Dodgers, and New York Yankees, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chiba Lotte Marines, Yomiuri Giants, and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

He played in the rookie leagues with the Gulf Coast Red Sox in 2001 and for 21 games in 2002 before he was promoted to the Class-A Augusta Greenjackets to finish the 2002 season.

He spent the majority of the year with the Double-A Altoona Curve and Triple-A Indianapolis Indians, where he hit .279 in a combined 137 games with nine home runs and 61 RBI.

[5] Though he began the 2009 season on the Pirates major league roster, Cruz was reassigned to Triple-A in mid-April to make room for second baseman Delwyn Young, recently acquired in a trade.

[3] He played in 67 games for the AAA Round Rock Express, hitting .273 and also spent some more time on loan to the Mexican League.

[3] After failing to make the Dodgers opening day roster, he was assigned to the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes, where he hit .318[1] and was selected to the Pacific Coast League mid-season All-Star team.

[13] Cruz remained in the starting lineup the rest of the season, first at shortstop and then switching over to third base when the Dodgers acquired Hanley Ramírez.

[1] On July 26, 2017, Cruz's contract was purchased by the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball.

[26] On February 1, 2018, Cruz signed with the Diablos Rojos del México of the Mexican Baseball League,[27]where he hit .307 in 23 games.

[1] The following season, Cruz signed with the Toros de Tijuana[28] where, in 91 games, he hit .320/.363/.623 with 27 home runs, 72 RBIs and 2 stolen bases.

[32] On November 15, 2024, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced that Cruz would serve as an analyst for its Spanish-language radio broadcasts on KTNQ beginning in the 2025 season.