How Elly De La Cruz Took Over Baseball Out Of Nowhere

Ellie De La Cruz is one of the most exciting rookies

baseball

has ever seen. This kid can do everything he can, run, he can hit for power, he's got great hands, a 6'5 shortstop who's also the fastest guy in all of

baseball

in just the first few months of his career, he broke records. of the MLB on both sides of the field and single-handedly reignited the red season with the power to hit 500-foot home runs while also having the fastest sprint speed in baseball. Ellie De La Cruz is an absolute. Phenomenon, however, just a few years ago he was basically unknown and was about to leave baseball for good and, despite his incredible start, the rest of his first MLB season was quite disappointing, so to really understand his history we have to go back to where it all began.

Firstly, he was born in the Dominican Republic in 2002, starting his baseball career from a very young age and when he was barely six years old he moved away from his family to start playing at the lowest level, but after only a few years it became evident that Cruz needed a bigger challenge, so when he was 10 years old he

took

his talents to the much larger city of Santo Domingo, it was here that he would begin training at the same Baseball Academy as Juan Soto and was finally beginning to have success. However, over the next few years, De La Cruz began to have serious doubts about her future.

When she was 16 years old, many of her teammates had already begun signing Major League contracts, but for Cruz this was not the case. Several scouts agreed that he was too skinny and not strong like the others, so he wasn't really on the radar, so at that point Cruz was beginning to realize daily that his time was running out and now he says he was very close to giving up everything and leaving. Back home, however, what he didn't know was that he was about to receive the biggest opportunity of his entire life in 2018, several MLB Scouts came to a Showcase in Santo Domingo to see some of the best players in academy and while De La Cruz was not in this group, they still placed him in the Showcase to make other players look better, however, after seeing him play, one of these Scouts decided to give him a chance and just one day later, Daily Cruz ended up signing with the Reds for only 65 thousand. dollars, which isn't much, but he didn't really care, he had been waiting for this moment his whole life and the real journey had only just begun in the summer of 2019.

De La Cruz made his professional debut in the Dominican summer league When he was 17 years old and after his first 43 games he recorded 733 operations with only one home run. Now, obviously, this isn't impressive on its own, but it gets even worse when you consider that he struck out 45 times and only walked 14 times. He was an average player at best and once again his mind was filled with doubt, so after the following season was canceled due to the pandemic, he knew he only had one more chance to prove himself at the start of the season. the 2021 season, Daily Crews. had become a completely different player compared to 2019.

After working with a personal trainer and growing an extra 5 inches a day, Crews was now six foot five and no longer the skinny kid he was once known for, so Winnie was promoted to the Arizona complex. League at the beginning of the season, coaches described him as a man among boys; over the course of 11 games he put up the best numbers of his entire life, hitting 400 with three home runs and an Ops over 1200. Not to mention he was suddenly throwing over 95 miles per hour across the field, so it finally seemed like Everything was going well for De La Cruz and a scout said we have to get him out of here.

He's set for the next two seasons. The teams continued doing their daily work. He advanced through the red system putting up solid numbers at all levels and during a game in Double A he managed to hit a 512-foot home run that remains one of the longest home runs in Statcast history, however, it wasn't until he reached AAA where he really started to show what he could do in early 2023. De La Cruz showed massive improvement in his approach at the plate, reducing strikeouts and walking at a much higher pace, as a result De La Cruz suddenly had became the Reds' number one prospect in their entire system, so as you can imagine, the anticipation for his MLB debut was extremely high, however, no one really expected the massive impact he was about to have. in the baseball game on June 6, 2023.

Ellie De La Cruz made her MLB debut at third base receiving a standing ovation from the entire stadium in her first at bat, fans were on their feet and cheering, there was a loud roar long before the first pitch, his first at-bat resulted in a walk, but only two innings. then his first hit left his bat at 112 miles per hour smash to right center, first hit in the big leagues and here it goes, data at lightning speed, Cruz to the Second, a double that, believe it or not, was the ball most hit by any player. the Reds at that point in the season, however this record did not last long as just one day later he would hit a 458-foot home run that came off the bat at 114.8 miles per hour, so after just two games, De La Cruz was already making a name for himself around the league, but surprisingly this was just the beginning of one of the most exciting starts to a rookie season in history.

One of the biggest highlights so far came on June 23 when he became the youngest player in over 50 years to hit for the cycle and not to mention his triple was the MLB's third-fastest time of the season with 10.83 seconds after that game. Joey Votto said just watching him move is different, I've hardly seen anyone move like him in that. height, calls himself the fastest man in the world and currently ranks first in sprint speed in all of baseball at 30.6 feet per second, so it's no surprise that on July 8 De La Cruz became the second player to the story in stealing the second third and the home.

In the span of just three pitches, now at this point De La Cruz was finally getting the attention he deserved and after only his second week in the majors he was awarded National League Player of the Week hitting 440 with two home runs and six extra base hits, so as you can see, he's pretty good at breaking records, but what makes him really impressive is that he's doing it on both sides of the field in a game against the Brewers on July 16. Daily Crews made a shot from third. base that came out of his hand at 97.9 miles per hour and of course this became the hardest infield throw in MLB history but once again this record did not last long because just a few days later he threw a 99.8 mile throw. per hour saving a daily run overall Crews became the first player in MLB history with 40 hits and 15 stolen bases in his first 30 games and during that time he hit 328 with four home runs and 16 RBIs, as You see, this guy is pretty good at baseball. but he has really done a lot more for the game than just breaking records in 2022, the Reds had one of the worst seasons in franchise history and at first it looked like 2023 was going to be more of the same, however, despite minimal roster changes, are currently in Pace for a winning record and appears to be a direct result of Ellie De La Cruz after she made her debut, the Reds suddenly won 15 of their next 20 games, including a streak of 12 consecutive wins that tied their franchise record and, unsurprisingly, Reds fans

took

notice immediately before De La Cruz joined the team.

Great American Ballpark averaged 19,000 fans per game in 2023; However, in the 12 games after his debut, that number suddenly jumped to over 30,000 fans per game, so even though just being a rookie on a daily basis has reignited an entire team and its fan base and It's pretty easy to understand why, whether he's at the plate, on the bases or in the field, he'll always be fun to watch now, I admit De la Cruz's rookie season didn't. End on a positive note though, it's important to remember that she's still only 21 years old and still has an extremely bright future, but for now it's safe to say that Ellie De La Cruz is one of the most exciting rookies ever and players like he.

They are exactly what baseball needs in the future.