Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart have one week left to put their names in a very small corner of Reds history.
For Cincinnati, this season has not offered much that went right. But De La Cruz, Stewart and Chase Burns have been the exceptions, the young trio giving the club something to point to in a year that has otherwise been tough to watch. Burns will pick up some down-ballot support for the NL Cy Young Award, Stewart is the likely winner of this year’s NL Rookie of the Year Award, and De La Cruz could land in the top five of the NL MVP race.
The bigger chase, though, is on the Reds’ record book.
De La Cruz is staring at the 30-30 club, and he’s close enough to feel it. Entering Sunday’s game, he had 28 home runs and 27 stolen bases.
He needed just two more homers heading into the weekend series against the Chicago Cubs to get to a career-best 30, and the stolen base total is within reach too. Since arriving in the majors in 2023, he has shown the kind of power-speed blend that makes this chase feel real.
He has also been a steady thief on the bases. De La Cruz has stolen 35 or more bases in each of his first three big league seasons, with his best year coming in 2024, when he led MLB with 67 steals in his All-Star season.
Now he has seven games left to try to join one of the rarest clubs in Reds history. Only three players have done it for Cincinnati: Eric Davis in 1987, Barry Larkin in 1996 and Brandon Phillips in 2007.
Stewart’s target is a different kind of mountain.
The rookie snapped a two-week homer drought last week against the Los Angeles Dodgers, launching his 32nd home run of the 2026 season. That put him second among Reds rookies, ahead of Joey Votto’s 24 from 2008. But Frank Robinson’s 38 home runs in 1956 are still the benchmark, and they’re a long way off.
If Stewart really has about 30 at-bats left, the math gets steep fast. He would need to homer nearly once every four at-bats just to tie Robinson.
That’s a heavy lift. Still, if he keeps tracking along the way De La Cruz has, he at least has a shot.
In Other News...
Barry Larkin Just Said What Frustrated Reds Fans Keep Feeling
Barry Larkin did not sugarcoat where the Reds stand right now. The Hall of Famer said Cincinnati is well behind the better teams headed toward the postseason, a blunt assessment that lands with extra weight for a fan base that has spent most of the last three decades waiting for meaningful October baseball. The Reds have missed the postseason in 26 of the last 31 seasons, and the drought has stretched so long that their last postseason win came in 2012.
For a club that has been trying to climb back into relevance, that kind of gap only sharpens the pressure on the people running it. There is already speculation that Nick Krall could return in an executive role, even though the teams postseason results under his tenure have been limited, and Larkins remarks only add to the sense that something has to give before the franchise can finally move from hopeful to dependable. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Roster Shakeup Just Put Two Cincinnati Futures In Doubt
Chase Burns breakout rookie season hit an abrupt stop when the Reds placed the All-Star pitcher on the 15-day injured list with a right groin strain, officially ending his year. In the same roster move, Cincinnati brought up Carson Spiers from Triple-A Louisville and cleared a place for him on the 40-man roster by designating outfielder TJ Friedl for assignment, a procedural step that can carry major consequences even when it is done to solve an immediate pitching need.
For the Reds, the timing makes the whole transaction feel bigger than a simple injury replacement. Burns was part of the clubs present and future on the mound, and Spiers now gets a chance to step into that opening, but Friedls status is the one to watch next because the assignment gives other clubs a chance to claim him off waivers. What looked like a straightforward answer to one roster problem may end up creating another question about how much of Cincinnatis future core is actually staying put. [Read more 🡒]
Reds May Have Chosen Who Pays For This Disappointing Season
The Reds have made their first significant call of the winter, and it points toward continuity at the top of the baseball operation. Nick Krall is staying on as president of baseball operations despite a season that left plenty of fans frustrated, with the club struggling badly on both sides of the ball and again coming up short in the kinds of spots that decide games.
Now the focus shifts to where the changes might actually land. Cincinnatis offensive issues were not limited to a cold stretch or two, and the pitching group never fully solved its development problems, which puts Chris Valaika and Derek Johnson squarely in the conversation as the organization looks for answers. If the Reds are going to turn this around, the next move may be less about who remains in charge and more about which coaches are asked to carry the blame. [Read more 🡒]