The Elly De La Cruz plan: Inside Cincinnati Reds' approach with a young star

GOODYEAR, Ariz. –– At the end of last season, Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell and bench coach Freddie Benavides called a meeting with shortstop Elly De La Cruz to discuss the steps that they wanted to see him take during the offseason. During the conversation, they didn’t talk about De La Cruz’s swing, his strikeouts or his approach at the plate.

They didn’t even talk much about baseball.

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“We were making sure of his priorities,” Bell said. “For any Major League player, there’s a lot coming at you. When you’re Elly and you got off to a start like he did, I don’t know how he even made it through the end of the year. But he did.  I think it was a great experience. There was a lot to learn from it.”

On a Reds team full of standout rookies, De La Cruz’s 2023 season was different from the rest. He was a 21-year-old, 6-foot-6 shortstop who set records with his raw power, his speed and his arm strength. He immediately became one of the faces of the sport, and he had to handle that while he went through a tough second half slide at the plate.

The Reds knew that De La Cruz had a lot of work to do to live up to his long-term potential. They got biomechanics experts involved in the process of analyzing his swing. Hitting coach Joel McKeithan made two offseason trips to work with the Reds’ shortstop. De La Cruz worked on new hitting drills, shortened his swing, reduced his leg kick and took his strength training to another level.

But the first step toward a very productive offseason for one of the most exciting players in MLB had little to do with baseball. He recognized all of the lessons that he still had to figure out.

“Sometimes,” De La Cruz said via interpreter Jorge Merlos, “You realize that you need to (make) some changes.”

Learning how to be a star

Last September, Reds second baseman Matt McLain watched De La Cruz take batting practice, and he watched a crowd watch De La Cruz take batting practice. The two have a lot in common. They rose up through the minor leagues together, they’re best friends and they’re cornerstone pieces of the Reds’ young core.

As he looked at the crowd, McLain pointed out how different their experiences were in the big leagues. McLain was getting famous, but De La Cruz’s stardom was on an entirely different level.

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Last summer, the spotlight hit De La Cruz in a hurry. Autograph requests. National media attention. Opportunities to appear in commercials. Endorsements. Chances to meet celebrities.

“This kid got called up last year, and the poor kid had everybody pulling at him,” Benavides said. “Everyone wanted a piece of him. The goal is to have him really stay focused on the task at hand of being out there every single day.”

In their conversation in October, Bell, Benavides and De La Cruz discussed the answers to specific questions. They wanted to help De La Cruz set up an environment where he could prioritize baseball.

“Elly had a lot that he dealt with and a lot thrown at him in Year 1,” Bell said. “How is he handling that? What does his offseason look like? What’s he spending his time on? What’s his plan to recover and get stronger? Is he taking care of himself? Are his priorities in line?”

Bell stressed that there weren’t any red flags with De La Cruz’s attitude in 2023. De La Cruz’s love for the game is infectious, and his competitiveness is on display every time he takes the extra base.

But the Reds are also preparing for a rare level of hype surrounding De La Cruz. If he makes the leap that the Reds expect to see in 2024, then he has the potential to become one of the most popular athletes in sports.

Bell and the Reds coaching staff has been working with De La Cruz to get ready for that moment.

“Being able to say no is a big part of this,” Bell said. “When you’re doing well, there are outside people that try to get stuff from you. I respect all of that. It’s awesome that you get to do that. It’s important. But (it’s about) keeping it in perspective.”

Bell checked in with De La Cruz throughout the offseason, and Benavides spoke with him on a regular basis. From the start of the offseason, Benavides stressed how De La Cruz had to be ready for the first day of spring training. Benavides wasn’t just talking about De La Cruz’s swing.

Bell, Benavides and De La Cruz caught up again at Redsfest in early December, and they were all on the same page. The coaches spent most of the conversations listening, and they left the meeting excited about De La Cruz’s progress.

Then when De La Cruz arrived in Goodyear, Arizona, in February for spring training, Benavides saw an even bigger leap than he was anticipating.

“We’re very pleased with everything he was doing,” Benavides said. “It’s ungodly the talent that he has.”

Building up to play 162 games

During the second week of September last year, the Reds were playing a road series against the New York Mets. Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall remembers having a conversation about De La Cruz and saying, “He’s gassed.”

De La Cruz made a swift rise through the Reds’ minor league system, and 2022 was his first full year of affiliated Minor League Baseball. In 2023, De La Cruz was still learning how to get himself ready for a 162 game season.

“Things weren’t going my way,” De La Cruz said on Wednesday as he reflected on his rookie year. “This offseason, I’ve worked really hard to have enough to play all 162 (games). I’m always working on my physical (development).”

Last year, De La Cruz was two different players in the first half of the season and in the second half. After debuting in June, De La Cruz hit .325 with a .897 OPS across his first 30 games. He was one of the best players in baseball. His production dipped in late July, and it cratered after that. Between August, September and October, De La Cruz hit .200 with a .647 OPS. He got benched in must-win games late in the year.

“We all get really excited about Elly’s tools, but we forget sometimes that he’s 22 years old,” Krall said. “These guys are still young players that are learning not just how to be big leaguers, but how to even get to the big leagues and sustain in the big leagues and then how to be big leaguers.”

The Reds coaching staff wanted De La Cruz to develop more of a routine. Before last fall, De La Cruz hadn’t been in a slump in four years. His struggles reinforced the need to improve the way he was preparing for games and for the season.

De La Cruz and the Reds talked about his diet. They designed a strength training program for the offseason. De La Cruz worked out in Miami with New York Yankees star Juan Soto, and De La Cruz got an up-close look at the routine of one of the most polished hitters in baseball.

Now, De La Cruz’s preparation for every day of spring training looks completely different. The Reds are so confident in his improvement that Bell named De La Cruz the team’s starting shortstop on the first day of spring training.

“Elly got it,” Benavides said. “I’m watching his routine now, and he’s being a pro. He’s doing everything he can to get himself ready. It's all the little things you’ve got to do to be a Major League player for a lot of years. I was talking with (Reds director of strength and conditioning) Rob Fumagalli who told me that Elly is ‘going full blast.’”

A new-look swing with De La Cruz leading the way

The seed for De La Cruz’s big adjustment at the plate was planted during a conversation last September with eight-time All-Star and Home Run Derby champion Robinson Canó.

At the time, the scouting report on De La Cruz was out. He chased too many pitches, swung and missed too often and struggled against breaking pitches. His swing needed to be more compact, and his mechanics needed to be more consistent.

Cano, who played his final big league season in 2022, related to De La Cruz’ experience and recommended a new set of drills.

“That started everything,” McKeithan said.

De La Cruz implemented these drills into his pregame routine. He set up a net over the middle of the plate and had a coach flip pitches over the inside part of the plate. Whenever De La Cruz’s follow through hit the net, he recognized that his bat path wasn’t what it was supposed to be.

De La Cruz did a lot of soft toss drills with coaches flipping him pitches from the side. As De La Cruz swung, coaches reinforced, “Balance on your back side. Stick and finish.” These drills helped De La Cruz work on keeping his weight on his back foot and staying behind the ball.

“The overall idea was to be balanced on every swing and take a line drive path,” McKeithan said. “Those were the goals of everything. That was something we honed in on.”

De La Cruz saw immediate results. During the last two weeks of the 2023 season, De La Cruz’s chase rate improved, he put more balls in play and he barreled up more pitches. McKeithan felt like De La Cruz’s improvement was off and running.

The next step was a meeting of the minds where the Reds dissected De La Cruz’s approach at the plate. The team included McKeithan, Bell, members of the Reds’ coaching staff and front office, Fumagalli and in-house biomechanics experts who provided an analytical perspective.

“There was a discussion about what to do and how to attack this,” Krall said. “How can we shorten up the swing?”

The group compared De La Cruz’s movements at the plate with hitters who have similar profiles as De La Cruz. They discussed the type of hitter that De La Cruz could become.

“It was about brainstorming as a group, coming up with a plan and implementing that plan,” McKeithan said. “We also understand that things change as you work through it.”

The Reds’ organizational philosophy for player development is empowering the voice of the player. Adjustments don’t work unless the player is bought in. And when the player is bought in, they take ownership of the process.

In the middle of November, McKeithan visited the Dominican Republic to work with De La Cruz and third baseman Noelvi Marte. McKeithan knew what he wanted to work on with De La Cruz, and the goal was improving his balance at the plate.

But a swing change wasn’t a directive. De La Cruz led the process.

“As a group, we want that,” McKeithan said. “They’re the captain of their own ship. We’re there to blow some wind in different directions and steer them there, or point out something over there. But they’re driving it.”

During the first day of McKeithan’s trip to the Dominican Republic, he had a good discussion with De La Cruz about potential next steps. They broke down topics like rotational balance, core stabilization and the details of the windup of his swing. They developed a vision for what his approach at the plate could develop into.

The next day, they put some ideas into action. “It clicked,” McKeithan said.

On the second day of the trip, De La Cruz was more stable as he went through a batting practice session against high-velocity pitches. His line drives weren’t slicing or cutting with topspin, and De La Cruz felt like he was balanced on every swing he took. McKeithan noticed more fluid rotation in De La Cruz’s follow through and more balance as he swung.

“The best thing he has taught me is to stay back and wait for the ball as long as possible,” De La Cruz said. “We’ve been working really well.”

One month later, McKeithan visited De La Cruz in Miami, where De La Cruz was working with Soto. During that trip in December, McKeithan introduced another new drill to De La Cruz.

“We did a bit of a lower leg kick to see how that felt,” McKeithan said. “He held onto that and made it his own. The leg kick was barely even mentioned by me. It wasn’t like we told him that this is the adjustment he was going to make. It was thrown out there.”

And it stuck. De La Cruz is using this new approach during spring training, and McKeithan said he’s excited about the results.

“Our goal is for him to be a complete hitter,” McKeithan said. “Someone who controls the strike zone and hits the ball on a line to all parts of the field. He has the skills to do that. I love where he’s at. I love the focus in his work and the adjustments he’s making pitch to pitch. He really understands what he needs to do and what he’s trying to do. He’s really smart and really motivated.”

On Wednesday, before the team’s first morning workout of spring training, De La Cruz went through a set of drills on his own in a weight room. While crouched in a batting stance, De La Cruz shot put a 20 pound medicine ball from his right hip to his left hip in a path that simulates a swing. He’s a switch-hitter, so then De La Cruz turned around and shot-putted the medicine ball from his left hip to his right hip to build more strength going the other direction.

This is all a part of the routine that De La Cruz has been working on for months. These are the steps that he believes are setting the foundation for his second year in MLB and beyond.

When De La Cruz wrapped up his work in the weight room, he jogged onto the baseball field. There was more work to do.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How the Cincinnati Reds are helping mold Elly De La Cruz into a star