It took Reds phenom Elly De La Cruz 5 games to go full pro wrestler

Elly De La Cruz is the big new thing for the Cincinnati Reds and he once again flashed his elite tools in an 8-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday.

Hitting cleanup and playing third base, the 21-year-old top prospect finished his fifth career game 1-for-4 with a run, RBI, walk and strikeout. It was the run where he really impressed, as he ran through a stop sign at third base to score from first on a Spencer Steer double in the seventh inning:

Per MLB.com, De La Cruz made the trip from first in 11.48 seconds and needed only 3.17 second to make the 90-foot trip from third to home. He nearly caught up to Jonathan India, who started the play at second base.

India had some high praise once the game was over:

“When I crossed the plate, I turned around and he was already sliding. ... He's the fastest human I've ever seen on a baseball field,” India said.

There might be something to what India is saying. According to Baseball Savant, De La Cruz entered Saturday averaging a 30.8 feet-per-second sprint speed, which would lead all of MLB by a wide margin if De La Cruz had enough runs to qualify for the leaderboard. Currently first on that board is Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals with 30.4 feet-per-second, followed by five other players between 30.4 and 30.0.

De La Cruz took things a step further, though:

The limiting filter of a tweet makes it impossible to know if De La Cruz was being facetious or something, but if he wasn't, the entire world of track running, and also probably Tyreek Hill, would like a word. But that's pretty much the point of a statement like that.

De La Cruz believes he is a star, so he might as well start acting like it.

Everything De La Cruz does is loud. MLB Pipeline has him ranked as the No. 4 prospect in baseball with all five of his tools — hit, power, speed, glove, arm — all above average, with particular praise for his speed and power. He spent the first two months of the season demolishing Triple-A pitching, hitting .298/.398/.633 with 12 homers and 11 stolen bases in 38 games, and is already responsible for the two hardest-hit balls of the Reds' season.

Five games into his career, De La Cruz is hitting .316/.409/.632 with a homer, five runs and two stolen bases. His 10 strikeouts in 22 plate appearances (45.5%) is concerning, yes, but you can't blame the Reds for enjoying their most exciting prospect in years doing the kind of stuff exciting prospects are supposed to do.