The Cincinnati Reds may not have much room for celebration this season, but Elly De La Cruz has given them one of the loudest reasons to pay attention.
Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter recently placed the Reds shortstop at No. 2 on his shortstop list, trailing only Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. Reuter pointed to a player whose game has kept expanding well beyond the raw tools that made him such a buzz name in the first place.
"Elly De La Cruz has had a tantalizing combination of power and speed from the moment he broke into the big leagues, but his overall game was largely unrefined, especially when it came to plate discipline and defense," Reuter wrote. "With a 133 OPS+ and a 23-homer, 24-steal performance, the power-speed production has been as expected, but the strides he has made with his on-base ability (.336 to .360 OBP) and defense (-3 to +7 OAA) have made him the NL's best shortstop."
That kind of leap is why De La Cruz has become one of the most dangerous players in the sport. Even with some missed time earlier in the year, he’s put together a season that should have him getting far more attention than he does.
The last two-plus weeks have only sharpened that case. Over his last 15 games, De La Cruz has been red-hot, batting close to .500 with four home runs, 11 RBIs, 16 runs scored and an OPS above 1.200. He’s piled up nine multi-hit games in that span, and among shortstops he sits third in batting average, second in slugging percentage, first in OPS, first in wRC+ and second in fWAR.
The defensive questions that followed him last season have also been answered. De La Cruz has turned in an elite year in the field, good for five Fielding Run Value and seven Outs Above Average, with both numbers sitting near the top of the league.
At the plate, the production has been just as eye-catching. He’s walking more than 10 percent of the time and doing real damage when he squares the ball up.
His 94.4 mph average exit velocity puts him in the 99th percentile, and even with his sprint speed down a bit, he still has 25 stolen bases in 125 games. Add in 24 home runs, 25 doubles, five triples and an .859 OPS, and the Reds have a player performing like one of the best in baseball.
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