During an interview on “The Front Office” on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM, Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall stated that the team had reached out to Elly De La Cruz’s camp about a long-term extension. The timing of these discussions wasn’t specified, though it can be assumed that the two sides met either this past offseason or even in the 2023-24 offseason following De La Cruz’s rookie year.
“We made a run at it and obviously didn’t get anything done,” Krall said. “We’ve had those conversations and that’s not something that we’ve been able to obviously match up on. So hopefully maybe there’s something there, but as of right now, there’s nothing, there’s no talks that are currently happening.”
De La Cruz is under team control through the 2029 season, so there isn’t any immediate need for the Reds to lock the star shortstop up. Naturally there’s plenty of benefit to both extending De La Cruz beyond those controllable years, and even in gaining some cost certainty over through his arbitration years. EDLC could also gain another year of arbitration eligibility as a Super Two player, should he qualify under the next cutoff point in November. We can safely assume that De La Cruz won’t be optioned to the minors this season, so he’ll finish 2025 with two years and 118 days of MLB service time — this happens to be the exact Super Two cutoff point in 2023, though that was one of the lower numbers of the last 15 years.
Gaining Super Two status would add millions to De La Cruz’s future earnings, and only add to what will already be a pricey endeavor for the Reds in extending their young star. De La Cruz is also represented by the Boras Corporation, and most (though certainly not all) Scott Boras clients generally test free agency rather than forego the market to instead sign a long-term extension.
An unheralded international signing in 2018, De La Cruz started to turn heads as a potential future star during the 2021 minor league season, then quickly gathered attention as an elite five-tool prospect. The hype has only continued through De La Cruz’s three Major League seasons, as he has hit .261/.341/.475 with 40 home runs and a league-best 87 stolen bases over 1001 plate appearances since Opening Day 2024.
Only eight players in the sport having a higher fWAR than De La Cruz’s 8.5 number in that span, even if public defensive metrics are mixed on his shortstop ability. The Reds’…
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