Cincinnati Reds infielder Elly De La Cruz is one of the most gifted players MLB has to offer, and the 23-year-old’s new manager, Terry Francona, has lofty goals for his young star.
“I told him (De La Cruz) again yesterday, ‘I want you to be the best player in baseball on the best team in baseball. That’s my goal,'” Francona said Friday, according to MLB.com. “And he got a big smile on his face.”
With blazing speed on his side, De La Cruz, who stands at 6-foot-5, flaunts a powerful bat from the left side, swipes bags at an eccentric level and has a cannon for an arm at shortstop; he also made 29 starts at the hot corner in his 2023 rookie campaign.
Last season, De La Cruz totaled 25 home runs, 76 RBIs, an MLB-high 67 stolen bases and a .259/.339/.471 slash line, helping him earn All-Star honors. Furthermore, per Statcast, De La Cruz has finished in the top 6% in MLB in maximum exit velocity in each of the past two seasons and posted a 5.2 WAR in 2024.
On the other hand, De La Cruz, who made his MLB debut in 2023 and has 1,123 plate appearances under his belt, also led MLB with 218 strikeouts and 29 errors last season. Francona wants to see a more balanced version of De La Cruz, which could very well come with more reps.
“With young players, as they accumulate at-bats, they get to that 1,200; you see them grow,” Francona said. “The messaging is, ‘With good young players, the game slows down, but it doesn’t mean we play at a slower pace.’ It just makes it easier to make better decisions. That’s what we want to do. … it’s not just here, but everywhere, the good players get brought up quickly. But when you do that, you just have to be ready to be a little patient because there’s going to be some mistakes. They’re going to see stuff at the Major League level that they’ve never seen before. That’s just part of it.
“Sometimes, when you’re that ultra-talented, you can outrun maybe some of your mistakes in the Minor Leagues that you can not necessarily do here.”
After stepping down as manager of the Cleveland Guardians in October 2023 and indicating that he was retiring from coaching altogether, Francona ended his hiatus after one year, becoming the new manager of the team from the other side of Ohio, the Reds, in October; Cincinnati fired manager David Bell after six seasons.
The Guardians went a combined 921-757 in the regular season and 16-17 in the postseason, with four American League Central titles and one AL pennant, under Francona from 2013-23. Of course, Francona previously won two World Series (2004 and 2007) managing the Boston Red Sox from 2004-11, and he managed the Philadelphia Phillies from 1997-2000.
Francona inherits a highly talented Reds club, highlighted by its young positional core, which includes De La Cruz, Spencer Steer, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Noelvi Marte and Tyler Stephenson, among others. The Reds are coming off a 77-85 campaign that saw them miss the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.
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