Reds manager to Elly De La Cruz: 'I want you to be the best player in baseball'

Cincinnati Reds infielder Elly De La Cruz is one of the most gifted players MLB has to offer, and the 23-year-old's new manager, Terry Francona, has lofty goals for his young star.

"I told him (De La Cruz) again yesterday, ‘I want you to be the best player in baseball on the best team in baseball. That's my goal,'" Francona said Friday, according to MLB.com. "And he got a big smile on his face."

With blazing speed on his side, De La Cruz, who stands at 6-foot-5, flaunts a powerful bat from both sides of the plate, swipes bags at an eccentric level and has a cannon for an arm at shortstop; he also made 29 starts at the hot corner in his 2023 rookie campaign.

Last season, De La Cruz totaled 25 home runs, 76 RBIs, an MLB-high 67 stolen bases and a .259/.339/.471 slash line, helping him earn All-Star honors. Furthermore, per Statcast, De La Cruz has finished in the top 6% in MLB in maximum exit velocity in each of the past two seasons and posted a 5.2 WAR in 2024.

On the other hand, De La Cruz, who made his MLB debut in 2023 and has 1,123 plate appearances under his belt, also led MLB with 218 strikeouts and 29 errors last season. Francona wants to see a more balanced version of De La Cruz, which could very well come with more reps.

"With young players, as they accumulate at-bats, they get to that 1,200; you see them grow," Francona said. "The messaging is, ‘With good young players, the game slows down, but it doesn't mean we play at a slower pace.' It just makes it easier to make better decisions. That's what we want to do. … it's not just here, but everywhere, the good players get brought up quickly. But when you do that, you just have to be ready to be a little patient because there's going to be some mistakes. They're