On Sunday afternoon, Elly De La Cruz hit a ball into the right-center field gap at Great American Ball Park and, instead of turning it into yet another routine double, he pulled up as he rounded first base and called for a trainer. The stadium went quiet. Some fans gasped. And within about four minutes, a meaningful segment of Reds fans online had already declared the season over.
On Monday, De La Cruz was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain, and his 276-game consecutive start streak ended. That’s the sixth-longest by any Red player in the expansion era; the last time Cincinnati played a game without Elly, as they did on Monday night, was all the way back on July 29, 2024. We were so much younger and more innocent then, weren’t we?
Let’s talk about what Sunday’s moment revealed. Not the online meltdown; that’s just what happens nowadays. Welcome to 2026. But what it reveals. The meltdown happens because losing Elly De La Cruz doesn’t just hurt this team. I fear it would break it.
My colleague Charlie Goldsmith wrote a really good piece Sunday about the big problem with Cincinnati’s roster construction: how top-heavy this team is. In terms of depth, the club is just Ozempic-thin when you get past the top few players. Charlie is correct that this is a structural issue and not just a run of bad injury luck. But what I want to write about is the one big thing underneath all of that: The team isn’t just top-heavy; they have one indispensable player.
What does it mean that this franchise has arrived at a place where one player’s hamstring makes the ballpark go quiet?
Elly De La Cruz is 24 years old. He played through a left quad injury for most of the second half of last season, quietly grinding out at-bats on one good leg because he wants to be that guy for the Redlegs. He’s a two-time All-Star who throws 100 mph from deep in the hole at shortstop and has become a better hitter this season than he was a year ago in pretty much every respect. He’s the only big-time star to pull on a Cincinnati uniform since Joey Votto’s glory days.
He is also, more than anyone who has worn a Reds uniform since Barry Larkin and maybe even more than anyone since Pete Rose, the player this city has fallen in love with. (This town never really fell for Votto, which is a complete disgrace we can discuss another time.) Maybe I’m overstating the case for Elly as a fan favorite, but I don’t think so. It happened fast, and it happened for good reason: Elly really is special. Enjoy him while you can!
On the positive side, it’s the 10-day IL, not the 60-day. On Monday, Reds manager Terry Francona said Elly had a grade 1-2 hamstring strain. It’s possible he could get another MRI in a couple weeks and, if things go well, be back in Cincinnati’s lineup shortly thereafter.
The Reds are being appropriately cautious and, no, the season is not over. Chase Burns has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year and continues to carry this rotation in a way that borders on embarrassing for everyone else in it. Sal Stewart is baseball’s best rookie hitter. JJ Bleday has been terrific since his call-up. And if we really want to squint through our rose-colored glasses, Hunter Greene is back in Cincinnati throwing bullpen sessions and reportedly ahead of schedule for his return.
And then there’s this: Edwin Arroyo has been called up from Triple-A. Finally. He was hitting .323/.383/.562 with 11 home runs in Louisville; Eugenio Suárez watched him for a day in Columbus and declared him a big leaguer, and the front office has now run out of reasons to wait. (I loved this video of Geno putting his arm around Arroyo before Monday’s game.) Nobody wanted it to happen this way, with Elly hurt and a roster spot opening by necessity rather than design. But Arroyo is here, and he’s going to be something. I think?
Reds President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall’s vision of sustainable mediocrity remains, as ever, a fascinating philosophical choice. And the structural thinness Charlie wrote about is a huge problem that matters more in a moment like this than it would on a deeper roster. Losing the one genuine superstar on a roster with so little depth is very likely to cause more damage than it would on a team that planned for injuries. (“We weren’t planning on guys to get hurt,” Krall said recently.)
Let’s hope Elly isn’t out very long. With the Reds in last place and reeling after a terrible month of May, I fear this club can’t withstand a prolonged absence of its one true superstar.
Elly De La Cruz plays every single day, gives everything he has, and has made this franchise genuinely worth watching during stretches when, well, everything looked like it was blowing up around him. He’s 24. He didn’t necessarily ask to be the thing that holds the whole enterprise together. He just showed up, game after game for 276 straight games, and played like it mattered, because for him it obviously does.
On Sunday, the ballpark went quiet when he pulled up. The internet panicked. But he’ll be back soon enough. The hamstring will heal, and when he trots back out to shortstop, the ballpark will make a different sound entirely.
Chad Dotson helms Reds coverage at Cincinnati Magazine and is co-author of “The Big 50: The Men and Moments That Made the Cincinnati Reds.” His newsletter about Cincinnati sports can be found at chaddotson.com.
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