LOS ANGELES – If it looks like the Cincinnati Reds face a sense of urgency over the next four months after digging an early season hole, imagine the urgency they face in competing over the ensuing five years.
Barely 100 games into his big-league career, Elly De La Cruz has become their biggest star, their most impactful player and the likeliest to represent them at the All-Star game in July.
“He does special things,” Arizona Diamondbacks star Corbin Carroll said.
Special enough to warrant a contract extension with less than year of big-league service like the eight-year, $111 million deal Carroll got last year?
Maybe.
Maybe more?
'A freak of nature': Reds phenom Elly De La Cruz could rewrite MLB record books
Maybe the $209.3 million for 12 years that Julio Rodriguez got from Seattle about 100 games into his career?
Or even Joey Votto money? He got 10 and $225 million mid-career?
Maybe more?
Maybe not.
“Give me the best extension you know of,” said Scott Boras, who represents De La Cruz and a handful of other Reds players, including Matt McLain and Jonathan India. “Where’s one that’s worked out great for a player? A great young player, and he signed an extension that worked out great for him?
“How’d Mike Trout’s go? Mike Trout gave up (age) 26, 27 and 28.”
In other words, leaving millions more on the table for his prime earning years by signing a six-year, $144 million deal with the Angels early in his career.
In a few more other words, don’t count on De La Cruz being a Red beyond his final arbitration eligible season of 2029, not if his star keeps rising as it has this season at 22 years old.
“My point is for a bad player, extensions work out great,” Boras said. “How many teams offer bad players extensions? So when people ask me that question, I go, ‘Good, go find me the extension that works out for the player.’ “
All of which makes this the biggest point for the Reds and their fans: Enjoy every watt of electricity and powerful, joyful impact De La Cruz might bring to the Great American Ball Park while you can over the next five years.
And for the front office: There’s the best projectable window for competing with this group to end the longest drought for winning a postseason round in American major-league sports (that would be 29 years, going on 30 the way the team is playing now).
Boras has had a few clients who signed extensions with their original clubs (Stephen Strasburg with the Nationals, for instance), but not at steep discounted prices.
And with the economic conditions owners have created in recent years that have driven productive, middle-career players out of the game in favor of cheaper, younger players, it’s even less likely a dynamic client with more leverage would sign an early deal.
“They want to employ every player to the age of 30, 31 and then kick ‘em to the curb,” Boras said. “They don’t want to pay for 32 to 38.”
No matter what the value models might suggest on either side of the argument for the post-31 player.
“You don’t give away their youth,” Boras said. “The youth is what you want.”
Love him or hate him as a fan (or team executive), Boras isn’t wrong on this.
And especially at a time broadcast revenue projections are uncertain at best for the Reds and other teams tied to Bally’s ongoing bankruptcy process, that makes De La Cruz both important for the Reds’ bottom line and a non-starter when it comes to the cost of a long-term extension.
Maybe that will change if MLB and the Reds get a lucrative enough handle on changes in the revenue landscape that streaming has wrought before De La Cruz becomes a free agent.
For now, it puts this core on the clock.
To win in a big way in the next few years.
Maybe they can start by winning a home game before they go on the road again?
No Way, Bruh
Only in Hollywood could a big-league baseball player drive in his underdog team’s first run of a game — right after hitting a foul ball in a packed stadium directly to his brother.
But, in fact, it happened in real life in the fourth inning of the Reds game Friday at Dodger Stadium, when Spencer Steer fouled back a pitch over the backstop into the upper deck — and into the hands of his brother Trever.
“It’s that twin connection I guess,” Steer said. “Forty-some thousand in the stands, and I hit a ball right to him. Pretty weird.”
Weirder yet, it was the first game of the year for Trever, Spencer’s fraternal twin, who got booed for his catch since he was decked out in a Steer jersey — which he then used to troll the boo birds by gesturing to the name on the back.
The Southern California natives grew up Angels fans, so trolling Dodger fans comes naturally.
“Repping the jersey with pride,” Spencer said. “That was pretty cool.”
The Big Number: 359
That’s how many days it had been since the Reds were in last place, until Friday’s loss to the Dodgers sunk them into the NL Central cellar for the first time since May 25 last year.
They're still there as they open a nine-game homestand Tuesday.
Unsolicited Advice
Here’s an early-season trade idea the Reds should consider pursuing: Go get Joey Votto from the Blue Jays.
The longtime face of the Reds franchise is reportedly about to start playing minor-league games after badly spraining his ankle stepping on a bat during a spring training game.
He’s affordable at $2 million for the big-league split on his contract and likely won’t take much in player capital to acquire.
He has relationships with most of the players in the clubhouse and by all accounts has been a strong influence on many of their careers.
And don’t forget his MLB-leading 5.000 OPS this spring (albeit, in one trip to the plate, before stepping on that bat).
Big Mac and Bigger Mac?
Matt McLain headed to Arizona from Los Angeles on Sunday to start the next stage of rehab from his March shoulder surgery, still eyeing a late-August return from the injured list.
In the meantime, anybody needing a McLain baseball fix should tune into Arizona State and Matt’s youngest brother, Nick McLain, a switch-hitting outfielder.
One of California’s better prospects out of high school in 2021, Nick has surged into prominence with ASU in recent weeks as the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week for the past two weeks and NCAA Player of the Week two weeks ago.
“He says he’s better than me,” said Matt, who has had a chance to watch Nick play a lot this season as he rehabs.
“But I don’t know about that,” Matt added with a smile. “He’s good. Time will tell. Both my brothers are really good.”
The middle McLain brother, Sean, is an infielder/outfielder in the Dodgers system, a fifth-round pick two years ago.
Crowd Burst?
When the largest crowd for a big-league game showed up Thursday in Los Angeles for Shohei Ohtani’s bobblehead giveaway with the Reds in town, the 53,527 in attendance represented the largest crowd for a Reds game in 12 years.
“I love it,” said De La Cruz said, who responded with a four-hit, four-steal performance in a victory.
The last time the Reds played before a crowd at least that big was July 4, 2012, also at Dodger Stadium (53,570). Their last 11 games with 50,000-plus attendance were at Dodger Stadium, one of only two MLB ballparks left with capacity that big (Oakland Coliseum).
Since the start of 2000, the Reds have played 33 games in front of at least 50,000 fans, including 16 at Dodger Stadium, six at Shea Stadium in New York, three at old Yankee Stadium, two at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, and one each at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium and old Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
The rest were home games in 2000, the year before the seating capacity at Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field was reduced to accommodate the overlapping construction site for Great American Ball Park.
For what it’s worth, the Reds went 13-20 in those games (11-11 through 2008, before they were all Dodger Stadium games).
He Said It
“I like it a lot. I like playing here. I feel comfortable. Because this is my city.”
*De La Cruz on his love of Los Angeles and Dodger Stadium, where he has delivered two of his four four-hit games and was 10-for-26 (.385) with four extra-base hits, four steals and a 1.082 OPS in his first six career games there (through Saturday).
Did You Know
Reds All-Star closer Alexis Diaz and Mets All-Star closer Edwin Diaz have a combined 264 saves and 44 blown saves.
When Alexis Diaz blew a save chance last week in Arizona, it marked the first time the brothers had blown saves on the same day, with Edwin having blown one earlier that night against the Phillies.
Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising considering Edwin has struggled so much this year in his return from knee surgery that he offered to give up the closer role at least temporarily if the bosses believe it will help the team.
And Alexis hasn’t shown the same level of dominance that made him an All-Star year since the middle of July. After producing a 1.85 ERA and converting 28 of 29 save chances in his first 45 appearances last year, he’s 7-7 with four blown saves in 20 chances and a 6.18 ERA in 43 appearances since. That includes a current six-appearance slump, through Saturday, in which he’s allowed nine runs and six walks in 4 2/3 innings (17.36 ERA, 1.065 OPS allowed).
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Elly De La Cruz contract: Why it's unlikely he signs long-term with Reds
