
Getty Image / Dylan Buell
Every once in a while, baseball gets a prospect that comes up to the big leagues and instantly becomes one of the league’s best players. Guys like Fernando Tatis Jr., Matt Harvey, Alex Rodriguez, and Juan Soto stepped into the spotlight and made it look way too easy. And, it’s too early to say for certain, but Cincinnati Reds mega-prospect Elly De La Cruz announced that he could be one of those guys with a monster home run for his first of what should be many in his career.
Elly De La Cruz was already one of the game’s top prospects coming into the 2023 season, but the Reds elected to start the 21-year-old infielder in AAA Louisville. By the time the dust settled, he had an OPS over 1.000 and was tearing the cover off the ball. Due to his wildly good play and the graduation of a few other top prospects, he was a consensus top-five prospect in all of baseball when the Reds called him up to make his debut on Tuesday.
And, on Wednesday, the switch-hitter made his mark on Major League Baseball with a home run you have to see to believe.
Elly De La Cruz casually goes 458 feet for his first MLB career home run… pic.twitter.com/diImkK58YP
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 7, 2023
That ball was absolutely mauled. Let’s get some advanced stats on this one.
This Elly De La Cruz homer got 143 feet off the ground and was picked up by the radar at CVG Airport. 😮pic.twitter.com/6cp4L8a7xu
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) June 8, 2023
Later in the game, he hit a triple, too, giving him three extra-base hits in his first two games. It wasn’t an ordinary triple, though. He was absolutely flying around the bases.
Elly De La Cruz with the fastest home-to-third time in the Majors this season (2nd-fastest in 4 seasons!) with his first big league triple!
30.9 ft/sec
10.83 sec home-to-third pic.twitter.com/Gx9V7V9et0— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 8, 2023
Look at these numbers over the first two games.
5 at-bats into his @MLB career, @reds' Elly De La Cruz registered:
🔴 The Reds' two hardest-hit balls of '23 (114.8, 112.0)
🔴 The Reds' two fastest sprint speeds of '23 (30.9, 30.4)
🔴 The Reds' longest home run of '23 (458)
🔴 MLB's fastest home-to-3rd time of '23 (10.83) pic.twitter.com/mYIkaUBziN— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 8, 2023
Safe to say, Elly De La Cruz is an instant star.