The Cincinnati Reds have spent much of 2026 searching for answers, and Terry Francona has taken his share of heat along the way. Injuries, uneven play and a handful of questionable calls have all helped turn what looked like a promising follow-up to the club’s 2025 playoff run into a rougher-than-expected season.
But one decision has aged beautifully: moving Elly De La Cruz into the leadoff spot.
That change came about almost by accident. Blake Dunn’s injury in late June forced Francona’s hand, and the move has paid off in a big way.
Since settling in at the top of the order, De La Cruz has hit .286/.381/.536. He’s also drawing walks at a 13.4% clip and posting a .250 ISO, which is his best mark from any spot in the lineup.
The strikeouts, long the obvious blemish in his offensive profile, have also come down. De La Cruz is striking out at a 27% rate overall this season, but that number drops to 20.6% when he’s batting first.
It’s only an 84-plate-appearance sample, but the production is hard to ignore. De La Cruz has already shown enough as a hitter that the Reds have every reason to keep him right where he is, even if the walk rate slips a bit and the strikeouts tick back up.
The old thinking said the best run producer belonged third or fourth in the order. That’s changed.
Batting higher means more trips to the plate, and over a full 162-game season, those extra opportunities matter. If the goal is to get the best bats involved as often as possible, leadoff is a smart place to start.
There’s also more upside still sitting there. The Reds have asked De La Cruz to dial back his stolen base attempts since the hamstring injury he suffered earlier in the year, so this version of his game still isn’t fully unleashed.
Once he’s fully healthy, the speed threat becomes even more dangerous. He already has a 67-stolen-base season on his résumé, and while that may not be a number he reaches again, he’s still the kind of player who can push past 30 steals in a year.
Put the improved on-base work together with his power, and the fit at the top of the lineup starts to look even better. For all the mistakes the Reds have made this season, this one looks like the right call.
In Other News...
Joey Votto Just Changed His Tune On Elly De La Cruz
Joey Vottos view of Elly De La Cruz has come a long way from the caution he felt when the young shortstop first arrived in the majors. Votto admitted he once saw a player with plenty of flash but also plenty of risk, the kind of talent whose strikeouts, errors and recklessness could make it hard to trust the long view. Since then, De La Cruz has given him plenty of reason to rethink that stance, with Votto pointing to the way he works, carries himself and keeps showing up every day.
What stands out now, from Vottos perspective, is not just the tools but the steadiness behind them. He praised De La Cruzs humility and drive, and noted that the Reds have watched him turn raw ability into something more dependable through consistent performance and durability. Votto even placed him in rare company when talking about the shortstop standard in Cincinnati, which says plenty about how far De La Cruz has come in the eyes of one of the franchises most respected voices. [Read more 🡒]
One Reds Deadline Gamble Might Finally Be Worth The Wait
The Reds 2022 deadline haul is still being judged through a harsh lens, especially after the club shipped out Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle in separate deals that reshaped the roster in a hurry. One of the quieter moves from that summer was sending Brandon Drury to San Diego for Victor Acosta, a return that has tested patience because Acosta spent years stuck in the lower minors before finally giving Cincinnati a reason to keep watching.
Acostas latest step forward came in Dayton, where he delivered a breakthrough game that hinted at more than just a hot night at the plate. For a trade that once looked like a footnote, that kind of performance matters, because the Reds are still waiting to see whether this is the start of a real climb or just another brief flash in a long, uneven development path. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Risk Making Their Ke'Bryan Hayes Mistake Even More Costly
When the Reds brought in KeBryan Hayes from Pittsburgh last July, it looked like a chance to buy low on a slick-fielding third baseman and reshape the roster with Taylor Rogers and Sammy Stafura going the other way. Instead, Hayes has struggled to provide much at the plate since arriving in Cincinnati, and the deal has quickly become one of those moves that looks different in hindsight than it did on paper.
That is what makes the next step so tricky for the front office. Hayes still carries a contract that runs through 2029, and if the Reds decide to move him again, they have to be careful not to turn a disappointing acquisition into a bigger problem by attaching him to other valuable pieces just to clear the books. [Read more 🡒]