The Thrilling Rise of Elly De La Cruz: A Testament to Immigrant Talent | PEP UNLIMITED LLC
CINCINNATI — The Reds and their scouts would love to say they knew all along that shortstop Elly De La Cruz would become a once-in-a-generation prospect and five-tool talent. They would love to brag that De La Cruz was exactly the player they were seeking to scout.
But sometimes, it just pays to be in the right place at the right time. That was the case with how the Reds and De La Cruz came together. “He caught our attention, and we were lucky to get him,” said Enmanuel Cartegena, who is now the Reds’ director of Caribbean scouting.
Which Reds Scout Discovered Elly DeLa Cruz – Search
De La Cruz, who hails from Monte Plata in the Dominican Republic, was playing at the Niche Baseball Academy in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Cartagena and fellow scout, Richard Jimenez, who was then the team’s director of Latin American scouting, were headed to the academy that produced superstar Juan Soto. They were going to see a group of players, including one who was a highly regarded shortstop.
That shortstop was not De La Cruz, but someone else.
The Reds scouts spoke with Cristian “Niche” Batista, who was viewed as one of the country’s top trainers of young talent. “He said, ‘I have this kid over here.’ He was a little bit underdeveloped at that particular moment,” Cartagena recalled. “He didn’t have those loud tools like some other kids had. But we saw him, and he caught our eye.”
Cartegena credited Jimenez for his immediate focus on De La Cruz and for liking what he saw. One contemporary comparison with his fluid and loose style of play was current Pirates shortstop O’Neil Cruz, but De La Cruz was a notch behind.
“He locked in on him right away,” Cartagena said. “We also relied a lot on Niche’s words. That’s why we went over. He was underdeveloped. Nobody saw him a lot. The ones that saw him didn’t pay much attention to him.” De La Cruz, now 21, was only around six feet tall as a 16-year-old and lacked build.
Currently, he is listed at 6-foot-5, 200 pounds.
“He was a prospect for sure, but he was not really strong at a young age like the others,” Batista said. “He was smooth, and he made it look easy but he wasn’t physically dominating because he was really skinny. He knew the game, though, and he had lots of heart. He played a lot of baseball as a kid and was really competitive. He had the potential. His body just had to mature.”
The next day, the Reds moved to sign De La Cruz. Because they went way over the international bonus allotment the previous signing period to land Jose Barrero ($5 million), Alfredo Rodriguez ($7 million) and Vladimir Gutierrez ($4.75 million), they were penalized and could have no signings of players for over $300,000.
Good thing no one else was really after De La Cruz.
Cartagena and Jimenez signed him for only $65,000 on July 2, 2018. “Right now, everyone thinks it’s a steal,” Cartagena said. The Reds scouts ended up not signing the shortstop they were supposed to see.
De La Cruz became the organization’s No. 1 prospect and the No. 4 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline. His electric style of play and vast power has already made him a must-watch in the Major Leagues, just like it did in the Minors.
Once in the fold and playing at the Reds’ Dominican academy, Cartagena marveled at how the young De La Cruz handled himself. The organization saw a humble kid but one who was also outgoing and talented.
De La Cruz wasn’t afraid to say hello to anybody at the complex — players, staff, coaches and scouts. He got along with everybody.
“He was just a dream for how mature he was, even at that age,” Cartagena said. “Even though he was smaller and weaker and didn’t have the strength of his peers, he was confident within himself. I think he kind of knew the player he was going to become.”
On the day Cincinnati’s No. 1 prospect reached the Major Leagues after his callup from Triple-A Louisville, De La Cruz appreciated the origins of his journey.
“You look back at it sometimes and think, ‘Wow, those are the opportunities that God gave me, and it got me up here today.’ I kind of look at that and keep going too,” De La Cruz said via translator Jorge Merlos.
How Elly De La Cruz Took Over Baseball Out Of Nowhere – YouTube
Ellie De La Cruz is one of the most exciting rookies that baseball has ever seen this kid can do it all he can run he can hit for power he’s got great hands a 6’5 shortstop who’s also the fastest guy in all of baseball in just the first couple months of his career he shattered MLB records on both sides of the field and single-handedly reignited the red season.
[Applause]
With the power to hit 500 foot home runs while also having the fastest Sprint speed in baseball Ellie De La Cruz is an absolute Phenom however just a few years ago he was basically unknown and on the verge of quitting baseball forever and despite his amazing start the rest of his first MLB season was pretty underwhelming so to really understand his story we have to go back to where it all started in the first place
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He was born in the Dominican Republic in 2002 starting his baseball Journey at a very young age and when he was just six years old he moved away from his family to start playing at the lowest level but after only a few years it became evident that Cruz needed a bigger challenge so when he was 10 years old he took his talent to the much bigger city of Santo Domingo it was here that he would begin training at the same Baseball Academy as Juan Soto and he was finally starting to get some recognition .
However over the next few years De La Cruz started having some serious doubts about his future by the time he was 16 years old many of his peers had already begun signing Major League contracts but for Cruz this was not the case several Scouts agreed that he was too skinny and not strong like the others so he wasn’t really on the radar so at this point, De La Cruz was starting to realize that his time was running out and he now says that I was really close to giving everything up and going back home?
OH NO…
However what he didn’t know was that he was about to receive the biggest opportunity of his entire life. In 2018 several MLB Scouts came to a Showcase in Santo Domingo to watch some of the best players in the academy and while De La Cruz was not in this group he was still placed in the Showcase to make other players look better
However after watching him play one of these Scouts decided to give him a chance and only a day later De La Cruz ended up signing with the Reds for just 65 thousand dollars which is not much but he didn’t really care he had been waiting for this moment his entire life and the real journey had only just begun in the summer of 2019.
De La Cruz made his professional debut in the DSL Dominican summer league when he was 17 years old and after his first 43 games he posted a .733 Ops with only one home run now obviously this is pretty unimpressive on its own but it gets even worse when you consider that he struck out 45 times with only 14 walks.
He was considered to be an average player at best and once again his mind was filled with nothing but doubt so after the next season was canceled due to the the pandemic he knew that he only had one more chance to prove himself
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At the beginning of the 2021 season
De La Cruz had become an entirely different player compared to 2019. After working with a personal trainer and growing an additional 5 inches. De La Cruz was now six foot five and no longer the skinny kid that he was previously known to be so Winnie was promoted to the Arizona complex League at the beginning of the Season he was described by coaches as a man among boys over the course of 11 games he put up the best numbers of his entire life hitting 400 with three home runs and an Ops over 1200. not to mention he was suddenly throwing over 95 miles an hour across the infield.
So it finally seemed like everything was coming together for De La Cruz and one Scout said that we’ve got to get him out of here he’s ready over the next couple Seasons. De La Cruz continued making his way up through the red system putting up solid numbers at every level and during a game in double AA he managed to hit a 512-foot home run which is still one of the longest home runs in the history of statcast,
However it wasn’t until he made it to AAA that he really started showing off what he could do at the start of 2023 De La Cruz displayed a massive Improvement in his Approach at the plate cutting down on strikeouts and walking at a much higher rate as a result De La Cruz had suddenly become the Reds number one Prospect in their entire system so as you could imagine the anticipation for his MLB debut was extremely high
However nobody really expected the massive impact that he was about to have on the game of baseball itself, On June 6th of 2023 Ellie De La Cruz made his MLB debut at third base receiving a standing ovation from the entire stadium in his first at-bat fans were standing and cheering there was a loud roar well before first pitch his first at bat resulted in a walk but only two innings later his first hit left his Bat at 112 miles an hour smash to Right Center first big league hit and here he goes lightning speed data Cruz up to Second a stand-up double which believe it or not was the hardest hit ball by any player on the Reds at that point in the season
However this record didn’t last long as only a day later he would hit a 458-foot home run that came off the bat at 114.8 miles an hour so after only two games De La Cruz was already making a name for himself across the league but surprisingly this was only the beginning of one of the most exciting starts to a rookie season in history one of the major highlights so far came
On June 23rd when he became the youngest player in over 50 years to hit for the cycle and not to mention his triple was MLB’s fastest home to Third Time of the Season at 10.83 seconds after that game Joey Votto said that just watching him move is different there’s almost nobody I’ve ever seen that moves like him at that height he calls himself the fastest man in the world and he’s currently ranked first in Sprint speed in all of baseball at 30.6 feet per second.
So, it’s no surprise that On July 8th De La Cruz became the second player in history to steal second third and Home in the span of two pitches! The OVATION. A f..king ovation for a VISITING player!!
That’s how captivating De la Cruz is.
Now at this point De La Cruz was finally getting the attention that he deserved and after only his second week in the major is he was awarded player of the week for the national league hitting .440 with two home runs and six extra base hits… So, as you can tell he’s pretty good at breaking records but the thing that makes it really impressive is that he’s doing it on both sides of the field
In a game against the Brewers on July 16th
De La Cruz made a throw from third base that came out of his hand at 97.9 miles an hour and of course this became the hardest infield throw in MLB history but once again this record didn’t last long because only a few days later he released a 99.8 mile an hour throw that saved a run overall.
De La Cuz became the first player in MLB history with 40 hits and 15 stolen bases in their first 30 games and during that time he hit 328 with four home runs and 16 RBIs so as you can tell this guy is pretty good at baseball but really he’s done much more for the game than just breaking records.
In 2022 the Reds had one of the worst seasons in franchise history and at first it seemed like 2023 was gonna be more of the same however despite minimal changes to the roster they’re currently on Pace for a winning record and it seems to be a direct result of Elly DeLa Cruz after he made his debut debut the red suddenly won 15 of their next 20 games including a 12-game win streak that tied their franchise record and unsurprisingly reds fans immediately took notice before De La Cruz joined the team
Great American Ballpark saw an average of 19 000 fans in attendance per game in 2023 however in the 12 games following his debut that number suddenly jumped up to over 30 000 fans per game, So despite only being a rookie De La Cruz has reignited an entire team and their fan base and it’s pretty easy to understand why whether he’s at the plate.
On the bases or on the field he’s always gonna be fun to watch now admittedly Dela Cruz’s rookie season did not end on a positive note however it’s important to remember that he’s still only 21 years old and he still has an extremely bright future but for now it’s safe to say that Ellie De La Cruz is one of the most exciting rookies in history and players like him are exactly what baseball needs going forward.
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