Nobody slides like Reds infielder Elly De La Cruz
Cincinnati Reds infielder Elly De La Cruz turns sliding into acrobatics.
When he slides, he combines all of his physical tools. De La Cruz’s record-setting speed, his 6-foot-5 frame and his incredible reach give him the ability to float in mid-air when he dives into one of the bases or home plate.
De La Cruz has worked tirelessly at his swing and on his defense, but sliding is natural for him. He said that he has never practiced sliding or even thought much about his strategy.
Reds manager David Bell said that he sees sliding as “pure instinct,” and De La Cruz’s instincts make his sliding maybe the most impressive part of his game.
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"Always looking to go headfirst'
“I’m always looking to go headfirst,” De La Cruz said via interpreter Jorge Merlos. “Sometimes, there’s the option of a feet-first slide. But I’m looking to slide headfirst. It’s really just instincts and finding any way possible to get to the base. On plays like that, I’m looking to get around the catcher or the defender right there and figuring out how I can swipe my arm around him to touch the base.”
The highlight reel of De La Cruz’s slides is mesmerizing. In Houston, he singled on a ground ball to the first baseman because of a head-first slide into first. In St. Louis, he adjusted his body in mid-air and levitated around the catcher to safely reach home plate. De La Cruz has already stolen nine bases, and his slides make him even harder to catch when he takes second or third base.
De La Cruz’s slides have two components: The takeoff and the way he scrapes over the base with his arm. To slide like De La Cruz, you need to be 6-foot-5 with an enormous wingspan and also be the fastest player in baseball.
De La Cruz’s baserunning starts with his lead off of the base. The league-average lead is just under 12 feet. De La Cruz takes leads around 15 feet because he can reach back and dive back to the bag.
From the second the play starts, De La Cruz already has a head start. When the batter makes contact, De La Cruz covers ground as quickly as anyone in baseball.
“His ability to gain ground in very, very few steps is rare,” Reds outfield coach Collin Cowgill said. “It probably takes him seven steps at full stride to get from third base to home plate with that big slide. His ability to take huge strides and still maintain speed is Olympic sprinter stuff.”
If De La Cruz is running from first to home, he picks up more momentum rounding third base than anyone in baseball has. He’s like a train going full-speed, and De La Cruz figured out through trial and error another way to make his physics work to his advantage.
De La Cruz begins his slide far from the base
He leaps for the bag around 20-to-30 feet away. Every time, De La Cruz launches into a headfirst slide and ends up parallel to the ground as he flies toward the base.
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“You have to be really fast to do that,” Cowgill said. “If you slide early, you don’t have enough carry on your slide. You need momentum. The speed that he has before he goes horizontal gives him the ability to slide earlier, longer and get there faster. I don’t know how you’d measure it, but it passes the eye test. It’s wild.”
As De La Cruz is in mid-air, he starts working on the other unique aspect of his slide. Most baserunners simply slide over home plate or the third base bag. When they get creative, they try to slide over the edge of the base. Reds outfielder TJ Friedl said that he’d risk an injury if he stuck out one of his arms like De La Cruz.
De La Cruz slides completely to the side of the bag and scrapes his entire arm over the bag. He also uses that arm to maneuver around the tag, and he approaches the bag from the side at almost a 45-degree angle.
“I haven’t faced anyone who slides like Elly,” Reds catcher Curt Casali said. “I’d have to tag his hand. There would be a smaller target for me to try to tag. When he does a swim move, I’m pretty much exposed. He launches so fast that he picks up speed as he approaches the plate. It’s a very hard thing to time.”
The swim move is another layer of De La Cruz’s slide. Most players can’t evade a tag as quickly as De La Cruz can.
Friedl said that he has to finalize the angle of his slide about halfway down the baseline. If he doesn’t, he’d risk sliding past the base or home plate, and he’d have to stick his arm out at the last second and risk an injury.
Teammates in awe of Cruz's slides
But because De La Cruz has such unique size and speed, he’s able to adjust the angle of his slide in mid-air as he’s flying to the base or to the plate. Already, De La Cruz has done a few swim moves at the last second to reach the base safely.
“With that length, you can do so many cool things,” Friedl said. “It’s instincts. Everything happens so quickly. I create my angle coming up the baseline. He starts his slides halfway down the baseline. That’s insane.”
Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner has the most famous slide in baseball. He also launches from a far distance, but it’s a feet-first slide. Turner’s smooth athleticism gives him the ability to leap into the slide, cross over the base and bounce right back up onto his feet.
De La Cruz said he has looked at Turner's slide, and he has realized that it’s “pretty hard.” But De La Cruz has the tools to be the best at baseball at everything he does.
His signature slide could help him get there in that area of De La Cruz’s game.
“Most of the time, it’s like, alright, this is how I’m going to do it,” De La Cruz said. “Sure enough, I get most of them. I get around the defender and figure out how to make it happen.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Nobody slides like Reds infielder Elly De La Cruz
