No Cincinnati Reds prospect has opened more eyes this season than 19-year-old infielder Elly De La Cruz.
In one month, he transformed from a player who made his Stateside debut in the rookie-level Arizona Complex League to a guy who is considered a consensus top-10 prospect in the organization. He’s a potential five-tool talent who seemingly came out of nowhere.
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De La Cruz, the youngest player at Low-A Daytona, has 19 extra-base hits (eight doubles, six triples and five homers) in 29 games. There are still a lot of raw areas of his game, batting .274 with nine walks and 52 strikeouts in 117 at-bats, but the upside is stunning with his speed, his arm and his power.
“I’m a scout and I don’t even know what to say,” Reds farm director Shawn Pender said. “I get a phone call about every two weeks or something going, ‘hey, man, who the hell is Elly De La Cruz?’”
For an organization that desperately needed to improve in the international market over the past decade, the Reds may have found a hidden gem in De La Cruz, who signed in 2018 out of the Dominican Republic. He's ranked as the 10th-best prospect in the farm system by MLB.com and Baseball America.
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Pender heard about De La Cruz, who is bigger than his listed 6-foot-2, 150-pound frame, for about a month when the Reds were deciding whether to bring him from the D.R. to Arizona. Pender watched video of him, but it wasn’t until he saw him in person that he realized all of De La Cruz’s talent.
“Everyone kept talking about him, his energy, his passion, his tools, his feel for the game, which you’re talking about a young kid, you don’t expect all of it at once, right?” Pender said. “I got down there for one game, and I’m like I was fool for not doing it earlier. I only needed to see like five innings and went, ‘oh my gosh.’
“On the video, you can’t see him backing up, taking the extra base or his angles and cuts on the bases for a young kid. Just really good feel. He’s been exciting.”
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Once De La Cruz was promoted to Daytona, word spread quickly. Justin Rocke, the team’s broadcaster, tweeted after his fourth game, “He’s not on any prospect reports, but this kid is a Top 30 prospect if I’ve ever seen one.”
His teammate, pitcher Wes Robertson, tweeted this week: “Dude does 2-3 things a night that make me shake my head in amazement. I truly feel like a kid watching him play, excited every time he steps up.”
A scout from an American League team says De La Cruz needs to improve his plate discipline, especially with two strikes, but he has impressive bat speed and should hit for more power when he stops hitting as many ground balls.
The Reds haven’t had many Major Leaguers come through their academy in the Dominican Republic, an area where they failed to keep pace with most organizations. They signed some Cuban players in the past decade who were already top talents, but Aristides Aquino and Wandy Peralta topped their list of homegrown international signings from the academy.
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Triple-A Louisville reliever Dauri Moreta, 25, has allowed four runs in 41 1/3 innings this year (0.87 ERA) and could be an addition to the Reds’ bullpen in September.
“We needed to do a better job, in my opinion, than what we did,” Pender said. “A lot of it is quite honestly being in a position to tie it together. We weren’t in that position before.”
One of the big changes, which was set to begin before the wiped out 2020 season, was implementing Luis Bolivar as their academies coordinator. Bolivar managed for three years with the Dayton Dragons and now he oversees on-field baseball activities in the Latin American and the Goodyear, Arizona complexes.
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He’ll spend about 10 days in each complex before moving to the next one, but it’s helped spread a consistent message to players about where they need to improve.
“For the Latin kid, a lot of that is just the adjustment beyond the playing part,” Pender said. “It’s the culture part. Now they have someone they see in both places that speaks their language and is a teacher, mentor and friend. It’s made a big impact. I think it’s really helped.”
Improving the international pipeline has become more of a priority for several years. Pender credited ownership, general manager Nick Krall and former president of baseball operations Dick Williams with injecting more money and resources to their international efforts. The Reds hired Trey Hendricks as their international scouting director in Oct. 2018.
De La Cruz represents some of the potential. The Reds have several of their high-profile international signees playing in the Arizona Complex League. Andruw Salcedo, an 18-year-old catcher from Colombia, is hitting .404 in 18 games.
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“I think it’s going to pay dividends,” Pender said. “I think we’re already starting to see that. We’re bringing over guys sooner. They’re adjusting more quickly. There are more resources to help balance educational opportunities for them.
“We talked how important it was. Now we’re living it.”
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