24-year-old Dominican Republic baseball player Elly De La Cruz will lineup for the Cincinnati Reds in what will be his fourth season in Major League Baseball. Touted to be one of the league’s brightest prospects, Reds President of Baseball Operations recently opened up on the direction for Cruz in 2026.
Recently, Reds’ President of Baseball Ops Nick Krall appeared on Front Office Insights presented by Sage. A video of this appearance was shared on the official X handle of MLB Network. In this video, President Krall was asked what was the Reds’ plan with Cruz for the 2026 season.
President Krall answered:
“We talked at the end of the season… Obviously he had a quad issue, probably at the end of July, and really wanted to play through it… So it was like we can either deal with it or we can sit down for handful of weeks, months, and not be able to have you. And he was obviously a big reason why we made the postseason last year. For him to grind through that is a huge testament to him, to who he is and what he does. Now, going forward, it’s like we are going to use him in the DH spot… we’re going to strategically do that throughout the season, and that’s going to make him a much better player over the course of full season.”
You can check what Nick Krall said in the video below:
In terms of personal stats, Elly De La Cruz had a decent 2025 season. During the Regular Season last year, Cruz recorded 629 at-bats with an average of .264. He also scored 102 runs with 22 home runs, and had 86 RBIs.
Elly De La Cruz thought the Reds would be signing a 32-year-old MLB star
Throughout the offseason, the Cincinnati Reds were rumoured to be signing 32-year-old MLB star Kyle Schwarber. Many prominent media outlets believed that Schwarber was on his way out of the Philadelphia Phillies, and the only likely destination for the player would be the Reds.
However, this move did not take place and Schwarber decided to stay in Philadelphia. Recently, Elly De La Cruz spoke about Schwarber and mentioned that he thought the Reds would be signing the Phillies star. During an interview with The Enquirer, Cruz said:
“I thought we were going to get him. That was going to be fun.”
It must also be noted that Elly De La Cruz revealed he had a brief conversation with Kyle Schwarber when the latter visited the Reds training facility. In a conversation with MLB.com back in December, Schwarber also mentioned he was ‘impressed’ after meeting the Reds.
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