‘It all started with Elly’: How the Reds plan to win big around MLB’s most exciting player
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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
When Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz burst onto the scene a season ago, his every move became an instant highlight reel. He helped reenergize a fan base starving for a winner by displaying a rare combination of power and speed while making Reds games must-see TV in the process.
After all, who else can lead the league in sprint speed, hit a ball 119.2 mph and throw it 97.9 mph across the infield?
But for all the sizzle that came with a debut season that vaulted the Reds into postseason contention, De La Cruz’s final numbers — a .235/.300/.410 slash line — didn’t quite live up to the hype and his team finished two games out of the National League’s final playoff spot.
“We were one game away the final weekend,” second baseman Jonathan India said. “It stung us. We could have been the Diamondbacks. It sat with me all offseason. I hate losing more than I like winning.”
This year, the focus in Cincinnati is about turning all of that flash into results that will have the Reds playing postseason baseball for the first time since 2020 — and it, of course, begins with their budding superstar.
“It definitely got more intense and lively when we started winning,” outfielder Spencer Steer said. “It all started with Elly getting called up and running off 12 straight. It just shows that the town wants a winning baseball team. They deserve one. It’s been a while.
After an offseason of hard work, which included time spent honing his hitting with former major leaguer Fernando Tatis Sr., De La Cruz is providing star level production for a team with the NL’s fifth-best record. Sure, he’ll still show up on the “SportsCenter” Top 10 plenty this season, but what has the Reds excited is his early showing at the plate.
In 23 games, De La Cruz has a .313/.412/.651 slash line that adds up to the fourth-best OPS in MLB at 1.063. Perhaps most encouraging is that he has managed to cut his strikeout rate and nearly double his walk rate while not sacrificing that game-changing combination of power and speed — and all of this has come just months after his 22nd birthday.
“Way, way, way ahead of probably 99 percent of players his age that have had the experience level that he has,” Reds manager David Bell said. “It’s incredible what he’s doing.
“He’s going to be developing for years to come and for him to handle himself the way he does — with a lot of attention — we couldn’t be happier. And what he’s doing every day to get better.”
Instead of trying to change De La Cruz’s approach to rush the process, the club cited time and experience as his major needs and encouraged him to continue being himself in his development. They saw a player willing to learn and weren’t surprised when he connected with Tatis Sr. on his own in a search for some guidance.
Tatis has worked with players in the past, most notably reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuna Jr., and it’s his simple message that De La Cruz credits for his early production at the plate.
“Be in control,” De La Cruz said. “Control yourself. He gave me a lot of advice. I learned a lot from him.”
De La Cruz indicated he wants to make the strike zone “a little smaller” for the opposing pitcher, and in the early going, he has reduced his strikeout-to-walk rate in half from his debut season.
“He’s worked so hard this spring,” India said. “He wants to be consistent. He wants to be a superstar. He has that ability. We all see that.”
But for the Reds to finish the season where they want to, they know that it’s about getting performance from the players around De La Cruz as well, something the organization opened its wallets to address this offseason while also leaning into the exciting play of their young core to sell veterans on coming to Cincinnati.
“The whole city was on fire for this team. They play hard. It’s fast, physical baseball. It was very evident the city was falling in love with this team.” reliever Brent Suter said. “I told my wife … this was already No. 1 on my free agent list and now it’s by far No. 1. This is a fun team. It was very evident from the other side, the bond kept getting stronger and stronger there.”
Keeping that close knit feeling while integrating veteran additions starts with De La Cruz’s running mate on the left side of the infield. The biggest splash of Cincinnati’s winter came when Jeimer Candelario joined the Reds on a three-year, $45 million contract. The third baseman is a ready-made mentor in a young clubhouse as a former top prospect who finally came into his own the past few seasons — and has made connecting with De La Cruz a priority.
“He likes to listen,” Candelario said. “He’s a learner. You have to give him time. Playing every single day in the big leagues is going to allow him to get better.”
That mix of needing time to mature while also being counted on to perform at the highest level is a common feeling in a Reds clubhouse that features three players who finished in the top seven of NL Rookie of the Year voting a season ago — with Steer and Matt McLain joining De La Cruz.
“We’re not afraid to make mistakes,” Steer said. “We’re going to go out and play fearlessly.”
That mindset energized the franchise at the major league level a year ago, fueled the front office during the offseason and if the player who most embodies it — Elly De La Cruz — produces, could have the Reds playing into October.
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Ryan S. Clark
Many of Mikko Rantanen’s greatest moments have come in a Colorado Avalanche sweater. It’s just that the most defining moment of his career came at their expense.
It wasn’t enough that the Dallas Stars were trailing by two goals. It was also the fact that Rantanen scored a hat trick in a string of four unanswered goals that saw his current team, the host Stars, eliminate his old team, the Avalanche, in a 4-2 win Saturday in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at the American Airlines Center.
“Obviously, the feeling was incredible to win a series,” Rantanen said in his postgame media availability. “This series was not exactly what I expected. I expected a seven-game series, even before Game 1. The ups and downs in the series. … Belief was there with the group the whole time. Obviously, I was able to make a pay to get the first one and the crowd started to roll.”
The Stars, attempting to reach the conference finals a third straight time, will advance to the semifinal round in which they will await the winner of series featuring the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets. That encounter will be decided Sunday in Game 7 in Winnipeg.
Soon, the Stars’ collective focus will shift to another Central Division foe. But for now? The attention before, during, and after the game, was on Rantanen.
Part of what made the Avalanche-Stars series arguably the most intriguing first-round series in either conference was the fact it placed two 100-point teams that are in championship window against each other. But, it also came with several subplots with the notable being the team that traded quite a bit to land Rantanen — with the hope he could win them a Stanley Cup now — needed him to defeat the team that he won a championship with back in 2022.
With one assist through the first four games, there was a discussion about if the Stars could manage to win with a sputtering Rantanen on top of the fact they were already without two of their best players in defenseman Miro Heiskanen and forward Jason Robertson.
Rantanen responded with a three-point performance in Game 5, and a four-point performance in Game 6 only to then have a hand in each goal on Saturday. His first goal came on the power-play with 12:12 remaining in the third period when he found enough space to fire a wrist shot that beat MacKenzie Blackwood.
Then came the game-tying goal and the significance it carried. The Stars went on the power play went Avalanche forward Jack Drury was called for holding. Drury part of the trade package the Carolina Hurricanes used to get Rantanen in late January before they would trade him to the Stars.
Drury’s penalty opened the door for Rantanen to score a game-tying goal that might be one of, if not, his signature salvo. Rantanen skated into the Avalanche zone in a 1-on-3 before he split two players before going around the net for a wrap-around goal that went off the skate of Samuel Girard with 6:14 left.
Three minutes later, the Stars received another power-play opportunity that saw Rantanen along with another former Avalanche forward in Matt Duchene work together to find Wyatt Johnston for the game-winning goal.
In the final minute, the Avalanche pulled Blackwood in the attempt to grab a late goal and force over time. Instead? Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger withstood a barrage that officially ended when Stars forward Tyler Seguin got the puck out of the zone only for Rantanen to skate in on an open net for the hat trick with three seconds left.
“I couldn’t care less who scored for them, I really couldn’t,” Avalanche captain and left winger Gabriel Landeskog said when asked about what it was like to watch Rantanen score a hat trick. “Mikko is one of my best friends and I love him, but I couldn’t care if he scored or if somebody else scored.”
For eight full seasons, Rantanen was part of a homegrown movement that saw the Avalanche go from finishing with what was then the worst record in the salary cap era back in 2016-17 to become a perennial favorite to win the Stanley Cup, which did they did in 2023, while also becoming a model for the need to build through the draft.
Building through stars such as Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen allowed the Avalanche to become a success. As did the moves they made to get other key figures like Valeri Nichushkin and Devon Toews.
Like all teams in a championship window, the Avs were facing the prospect of possibly making a difficult decision. They had yet to agree to a new contract with Rantanen, who was a pending unrestricted free agent. Then, came the blockbuster trade that few throughout the league saw coming.
The Avalanche traded Rantanen in a three-team trade that saw them get Martin Necas and Drury along with two draft picks. Rantanen’s time with the Carolina Hurricanes was limited to just two goals and six points in 13 games.
Despite the fact the Hurricanes are also among that cadre of championship contenders, Rantanen struggled to find cohesion in Raleigh. Rather than run the risk of watching leave for nothing in free agency, the Hurricanes put out feelers to a few teams with the Stars being one of them.
A long-time admirer of Rantanen, the Stars packaged two first-round picks, three second-round picks and former prized prospect Logan Stankoven to get Rantanen. They then signed him to an eight-year contract worth $12 million annually.
“It’s two things: It’s where our team’s at, and it’s Mikko Rantanen,” Stars general manager Jim Nill told ESPN back in March.
Rantanen finished the regular season with five goals and 18 points in 20 games prior to the showdown with his former team.
Not only did Rantanen’s hat trick condemn his former team to their second first-round exit since winning the Stanley Cup, but it continued a theme of former Avalanche eliminating their previous employers.
The Avalanche and Stars faced each other in last season’s Western Conference semifinal that saw Duchene, a former Colorado first-round pick, score the game-winning goal.
A year later, it was another former Avalanche first-round pick who delivered the devastating blow.
“It seems pretty fitting,” Johnston said about Rantanen. “Obviously, we want to win for each other and I think that goes a little extra when it’s a guy like that who is such a big part of our team and was there for a long time and everyone knows the trade that went on. It’s so awesome. We’re so happy as a group for him.”
As if Rantanen scoring a hat trick in a four-goal comeback wasn’t enough, there’s also the fact that this is now the ninth consecutive Game 7 that Stars coach Peter DeBoer has won his career.
DeBoer’s nine wins in Game 7s broke a tie with Darryl Sutter for the most in NHL history. It was also DeBoer’s third game 7 wins with the Stars.
“I felt something was going to happen,” DeBoer said. “But I could not have predicted that.”
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