The Cincinnati Reds have a player they should be doing everything possible to build around in Elly De La Cruz. The question is whether they can give him enough reasons to stay and whether they’ll open up the checkbook.
On Tuesday, The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans discussed De La Cruz’s future with the Reds, pointing to his desire to win and the massive contract he could eventually receive.
“To spend your career in a place like Cincinnati, you’ve got to really want to be here,” Rosecrans said on Foul Territory. “I think Elly wants to be here while he’s here, but he is also a guy that has some bigger ambitions. Elly De La Cruz is a competitor and he wants to win.”
That doesn’t mean De La Cruz has decided against staying in Cincinnati. Rosecrans is simply giving his thoughts on the situation.
Having a player like De La Cruz only matters so much if the front office can’t put a winning team around him. The Reds have a player who can be the centerpiece of their lineup for years. They need to give him the supporting cast to turn that potential into something meaningful. So far, the Reds have made the postseason just once with De La Cruz on the roster.
Rosecrans continued to talk about why keeping De La Cruz for his entire career could be difficult.
“He’s going into his first year of arbitration this year. It’s going to be a challenge to put a team around him while he’s still here. I don’t think anyone can expect him to be with the Reds his entire career. It’s not practical. It’s not realistic. And that’s just the state of the game now. Who knows what that means in six months or whenever this is all settled. Still, it’s going to be hard to get him. They put up an offer a couple of years ago, the largest contract offer in team history, eclipsing the Joey Votto one, but that is not something Elly is going to look at. He is showing everybody why he is this immense talent and that he could have this unbelievable contract in the future. He is becoming a better and better player.”
The Reds may have offered Elly more than they paid Joey Votto, but Votto signed his deal in 2012. Contracts have gotten much bigger since then. The largest offer in Reds history could still be well below what Elly gets on the open market.
There are two challenges here. One is paying De La Cruz enough to keep him. The other is building a team that gives him a reason to believe he can win in Cincinnati.
Neither should be an excuse to waste the seasons the Reds have with him.
De La Cruz is under team control through the 2029 season.
If ownership and the front office believe keeping De La Cruz long-term will be difficult, that should create more urgency to win now. The Reds have De La Cruz, Sal Stewart and Chase Burns to build around. Now it’s on ownership to spend and the front office to make the right moves. The pieces are there. The time is now.
The Reds can’t control every part of De La Cruz’s future. They can control how aggressively they try to build around him. Before anyone accepts that he’ll eventually leave, this organization needs to give him a reason to stay.
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