Could Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz open 2024 in minors? It's not a clown question, bro

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – During his annual media session at baseball’s general managers meetings, agent Scott Boras was asked about one of his highest profile Cincinnati Reds client.

Specifically, the Enquiring mind wanted to know what Boras made of Elly De La Cruz’s second-half struggles and whether he’d be surprised to see the high-ceiling shortstop open next season in the minors.

“Yes, I would be very surprised,” Boras said with a laugh. “You’re the first to (suggest) that. How’s the GM hat fit?”

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It’s not something the Reds want or expect to happen. But that doesn’t mean it’s a clown question, bro – or even out of the question for a team hoping to add pitching this winter to an 82-win team that is counting on a very young core of talented position players to avoid enough collective growing pains to take another competitive step in 2024.

That’s where the electrifying talent of De La Cruz comes in — or goes out for a while — as the Reds sort out an infield group that includes seven players who finished in the big leagues with significant infield playing time, an eighth who finished in the minors and is out of options (Jose Barrero), four of whom made big-league debuts in 2023.

It was a season of extremes

That foursome of 2023 newbies includes De La Cruz, who took the league by storm in his first six weeks in the majors before slumping all the way to the finish line after the All-Star break.

• Before (30 games): .325, .887 OPS, a cycle, MLB-best sprint speed, two tape-measure home runs.

• After (68 games): .191, .627 OPS, 36% strikeout rate.

He might be the player who best exemplifies the Reds young core looking ahead after their surprising run at a playoff berth this year: enormous talent and potential impact played against significant questions and more to prove heading to spring.

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For now that means a lot of work this winter and enough to prove that Reds president Nick Krall said De La Cruz goes to spring training needing to earn his big-league spot.

“A lot of guys do,” Krall said Wednesday as the GM meetings neared their conclusion at the Omni resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. “How many guys do we have that are penciled into our team that have less than a year of service time right now?

“You’ve got to figure out: ‘Have you made adjustments, where are you going with those adjustments and how are you going to get better?’ And did they make those adjustments over the winter and how does it look in spring training.”

This is the playing-time crunch that led to the Reds declining Joey Votto’s 2024 contract option. But even that didn’t alleviate much.

A lot of youngsters in similar situations

Second baseman Jonathan India, the 2021 Rookie of the Year, is back, along with middle infielder Matt McLain, who looked like the Reds’ best player from the time he debuted in mid-May. Noelvi Marte and Christian Encarnacion-Strand both finished strong after second-half debuts. Infielder Spencer Steer, who might have been the team MVP this year, showed enough versatility to play some corner outfield because of all the infield competition.

And that doesn’t even include former No. 2 overall draft pick Nick Senzel, the third baseman who played a lot of center field the past two seasons — and may not fit in either role by the time tough decisions are made over the next few weeks of the offseason.

“Lucky Cincinnati that they have that kind of talent,” said Boras, who also represents McLain, India and Senzel. “Most teams don’t have two players (that caliber) on the infield let alone four or five.”

None of the rest has the sheer skill set at the level De La Cruz does — including the 99-mph throwing velocity most pitching coaches would drool over.

So how will it play next spring or next April for the switch-hitting sensation, who struggled mightily from the right side in his four-month debut?

How De La Cruz answers that might have outsized impact for the Reds competitively in 2024.

Boras and Reds officials pointed to the rigors of the longest season of De La Cruz’s life creating increasing fatigue over the second half and a learning curve that might help prepare him for 2024.

“He had 250 at-bats in the minor leagues right-handed, and now you’re playing in the major leagues. Wow,” Boras said. “For those of us who played minor-league ball, to think about how many at-bats we needed just to play Double-A — it’s something we asked a lot of him.

“He’s working obviously on strength, getting ready to play a full 162-game schedule,” Boras added. “He’s not come anywhere near that prior to this year. So there was a big fatigue factor for him late in the year. He’s getting his strength and durability there. And then also getting more focus on how to work on his technique for the right-handed at-bats.”

Krall said De La Cruz’s full agenda of work the rest of the winter, including the possibility of getting some late at-bats in winter ball, is “still a work in progress.”

De La Cruz, the second-youngest player in the majors when he debuted June 6, has shown an ability in the minors to hit especially well from the right side, so it’s not a concern to the team beyond the overall issues with the swing and miss.

“He’s working on his swing this winter,” Krall said. “We’ll have to see how it goes coming into spring training.”

Meetings Buzz

• Look for trade talk to heat up for Senzel between now and Friday of next week, MLB’s deadline for tendering contracts to arbitration-eligible players. If the Reds can’t get a low-level trade done, the righty hitter who crushed lefties this season is expected to get non-tendered and become a free agent.

• A source with knowledge of other teams’ interest in India said “everybody” wants him. Asked about calls from other teams on India, Krall said: “We’ve had a handful of people reach out on different players on our roster. “But we’re not looking to just move guys. I think we can be opportunistic on certain things. But just looking to move guys, we’re not looking to move guys.” Krall likes his position-player group, including India’s clubhouse influence and impact on the lineup.

• Krall said he’s still in the “feeling out” stage of the trade and free agent markets, including what figures to be a more competitive than usual market for the starting pitcher he seeks. “We’ve had a lot of conversations,” he said. “We’ve met with a lot of agents, just trying to figure out where the market for everything is. Either with teams in trades or the free agent market.”

• The Reds have more financial flexibility this winter than they had a year ago, especially with Votto’s $25 million from this year falling off the books (minus the $7 million option buyout on his deal). And it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Reds pull off a significant multi-year deal for a pitcher in the second tier of free agents.

• Except for this: By all accounts, from teams and agents, the starting pitching market already looks turbo-charged, which could drive prices dramatically from early projections. Said Boras, who represents such free agents as Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell: “I would say that in the pitching Autobahn, it’s pretty much Mach Schnell.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Here's why it's a big winter for Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds