GOODYEAR, ARIZONA—Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz has a big number he’s chasing this year. The All-Star who led all of baseball with 67 stolen bases and led the Reds with 25 homers in 2024 is thinking about the number 90.
He’s setting out to be safe on at least 90% of his stolen base attempts this season. “I’m really working on it,” says De La Cruz. “I want to be safe.”
De La Cruz is capable of almost anything on the baseball field. He’s a walking highlight reel who on any given play can do something you’ve never seen before. He’s called himself “the fastest man in the world.” He’s talented enough to match Shohei Ohtani’s 50-50 season (50 home runs and 50 stolen bases) and could set the MVP award as his goal for 2025.
Instead, De La Cruz wants to be safe, which is a more mature way to look forward to his third year in the big leagues. He was safe on just 81.4% of his stolen base attempts last year, led MLB by getting caught stealing 16 times, and led MLB with 29 errors. “Being consistent is really important,” he says.
De La Cruz says he’s a lot more comfortable entering the 2025 season because, for the first time in his baseball life, he knows what to expect. As a teenager, he desperately worked to convince an MLB organization to give him a minor league contract and a shot to show what he could do. In 2021, De La Cruz had his first taste of affiliated minor league baseball. In 2022, he became the top prospect in baseball and learned about the hype that came with that.
In 2023, De La Cruz made his big league debut. In 2024, he became such a big star that he couldn’t really leave the team hotel when he was on the road because he’d be swarmed by fans asking for autographs and photos.
There’s no big change for De La Cruz entering 2025. “I know what I can do,” he says. “I just have to be healthy.” The 23-year-old is starting to sound like a veteran.
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Reds manager Terry Francona doesn’t remember exactly when the conversation took place. He figures it was some point around the third year in the big leagues for Cleveland Guardians superstar third baseman José Ramirez. At the time, Francona was managing the Guardians.
“Josey,” Francona said to his best player, calling Ramirez by his nickname, “Here’s what we’re trying to do. Everything you do on the field is geared toward trying to help us win the game.” Ramirez had the tools but wasn’t playing like a superstar yet. Then he figured out how to play winning baseball.
Francona says it started with Ramirez’s ability to balance aggressive base running with smart decision making. “José Ramirez is probably the best I’ve ever seen at that,” says Francona. “All that I had to say to him was ‘Josey.’ When your best player takes it and does it better than anybody in baseball, it makes your messaging a little easier.”
De La Cruz is the Reds’ best player. In their first conversation, Francona told the All-Star that he didn’t want De La Cruz to be the best player in baseball—he wanted De La Cruz to be the best player on the best team in baseball. De La Cruz heard Francona’s story about Ramirez’s development and learned about how Ramirez set the tone for the entire team. From that conversation with Francona, De La Cruz says that he learned that Ramirez’s discipline is what makes him great.
Francona told De La Cruz that stealing a certain number of bases in a season wasn’t really all that important at the end of the day. “Everything you do on the field is geared to help us win,” Francona says. “For young players, sometimes that’s hard. Explaining that goes a long way. I hope he steals 150 bases. We want it to help us win the game.”
In other words, “Be safe.”
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When De La Cruz was in the minor leagues, one of his mentors pulled him aside for a conversation. De La Cruz was several years younger than most of his minor league teammates at the time. Since he was so young, he didn’t really see himself as a clubhouse leader and didn’t recognize yet the impact he had on others.
The mentor told De La Cruz that because he was the most talented player around, all eyes were always on him. There’s pressure and responsibility that comes with that. Everyone is watching when you make an error or get thrown out on the bases. Everyone is watching how you respond, and your actions impact the entire clubhouse. Your actions shape the entire team’s culture.
Hunter Greene, the Reds’ ace who has been in the spotlight for his entire life, says, “We just have to notice that and embrace the position we’re in. Everyone has their eyes on us. If you look at it the right way, that’s a great thing. That’s a special thing to do because you have the power to really change people’s careers.”
Greene is asked what he’s looking forward to seeing from De La Cruz in 2025. “It’s about his continued leadership,” he says. “He sets the tone, inspires and motivates the next group of middle infielders and players who are behind him. He’s in a really special position in the organization to impact and change a lot of careers and lives of individuals. He’ll continue to do that.”
When the Reds fired manager David Bell at the end of last season, “accountability” was the buzzword. Players felt like there needed to be a higher standard and they needed to address routine mistakes that were repeatedly happening. De La Cruz recognized he had room to grow in that area, saying, “I know I have to take my part and come back next year better.”
He adds, “Yeah, I’ll be a leader.”
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At this point last Spring Training, De La Cruz was making a lot of changes. He had a new batting stance and a new offseason workout partner in outfielder Juan Soto, who’s now the highest paid player in baseball. De La Cruz had a new training program and was getting a lot stronger. He was learning how to handle the avalanche of attention he received off of the field.
The changes paid off with his breakthrough season. De La Cruz was one of the best players in baseball in 2024, finishing eighth in NL MVP voting and ranking ninth in the league in Wins Above Replacement, a statistic that measures a player’s total value. He was the talk of All-Star weekend in July and got as much media attention as any player aside from Ohtani. Along the way, De La Cruz earned his place on the cover of MLB The Show 25.
It’ll be almost mathematically impossible for De La Cruz to make as big of a leap in 2025. He’s already at the top of the sport. This season is going to be about the tweaks that can make him 5% better, and it’ll be about bringing the entire team along with him.
“For him, he’s such a humble and hard-working guy,” says Reds outfielder TJ Friedl. “There’s never a doubt in my mind that he’s going to continue to get better. Just not being satisfied that you made it, that’s the biggest challenge. He puts his head down every day all season and works to get better. That’s what you want to see from the superstar on a team. He works to be better.”
During the offseason, De La Cruz made a minor tweak to his swing mechanics and adjusted the way he moves his front leg as he swings the bat. The approach will help him keep a more consistent swing path from one pitch to the next. It’s not a huge change, but it should help him cut down on some of the strikeouts.
De La Cruz spent a lot of time working on his defense. He knows that he has to commit fewer errors in 2025. By cutting down on some of his own mistakes, he’ll also show the whole team the importance of being reliable defenders.
Reds bench coach Brad Mills says, “He’s a guy who works hard and does whatever he can for his teammates. He’s just going to continue to work with what he has. That will give you more and more as he develops. He’s 23 years old. My goodness. He has the talent that he’s going to find the extra few percent with his eyes closed.”
De La Cruz’s biggest change is going to be his plan on the basepaths. Be aggressive, but be smart. Be safe. Last year, he’d often get to first base after a walk or a hit and immediately tell base running coach Collin Cowgill, “I’m running.”
De La Cruz was aggressive when he shouldn’t have been. He shouldn’t have been stealing second base with the Reds down by a few runs in the ninth inning. “Last year, there were certain times he’d just go because he thought he’d be safe and he wasn’t 100% sure,” says Cowgill. “He needs to pick his spots a bit better.”
Francona’s conversation with De La Cruz about Ramirez set the tone for the expectation this year, and De La Cruz has been working with Cowgill on the specifics of his plan on the bases. “It comes with his reps,” says Cowgill. “He knows he needs to be safe a lot more if he’s going to run. Whenever he steals, great. I want his percentages to be in the 90s. If he runs with a good jump, he’s going to be safe. That’s what we want him to be.”
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New Reds outfielder Austin Hays has spent most of his career with the Baltimore Orioles, where he watched top prospect Gunnar Henderson become an MVP candidate and lead one of the best teams in baseball. Last year, Henderson hit 37 home runs and stole 21 bags on an Orioles team that won 91 games.
Hays still was blown away when he watched De La Cruz on the first day of Spring Training. “With Elly, the sound off his bat is just different,” he says. “To be that size and play shortstop is an impressive thing to watch. He’s an MVP caliber player.”
Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. led MLB in hits and batting average in 2024 and also had 32 homers and 31 stolen bases. He finished second in last year’s AL MVP voting. New Reds starting pitcher Brady Singer was on that Kansas City team. “Elly and Bobby are both such dynamic players, and you can’t pick one or the other,” says Singer. “The players we have in this game right now, it’s unbelievable. It’s wild. He and Bobby are basically the same player.”
There’s a lot of pressure on De La Cruz. There’s also pressure on a Reds’ team that hasn’t won a postseason series during his lifetime. He says, “Winning in the big leagues with these guys would be something special.”
To get there, the Reds have to establish a clean, aggressive brand of smart baseball. De La Cruz has to take that next step and bring the team along with him. And if the Reds make the postseason and end up in a matchup against Soto’s New York Mets or Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers, De La Cruz is going to have to try to match their star power.
“Elly can be the best player in baseball,” says Reds first baseman Spencer Steer.
This time, for the first time in his professional career, De La Cruz understands exactly what he has to do to reach that goal.
Charlie Goldsmith has covered the Reds and Bengals since 2020, and his newsletter on the teams can be found at charlieschalkboard.substack.com. He’s @CharlieG__ on X.
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