Ten days is not a long time in baseball. A perfect 10 days doesn't guarantee you'll even get close the playoff hunt. A winless 10 days won't necessarily keep you out. To watch the Cincinnati Reds, though, is to wonder whether 10 days can change everything.
It’s not always going to be homers, steals and photoshoots for De La Cruz, whose batting line is a solid .235/.350/.412 after three straight hitless games followed six in a row with one. Yet it’s nearly impossible to come away from these first nine games without serious optimism.
The 6-foot-5 marvel is mostly playing third base as McLain mans shortstop, which is just the latest example of his willingness and capability to learn on the fly. Players with his length often struggle to make consistent contact, and De La Cruz is running a 69.4% contact rate that won’t set him up for batting titles. What they can do is master the strike zone so their swings come predominantly on strikes, where they can maximize damage.
Early on, De La Cruz is running a too-high 37.5% strikeout rate, but he’s also demonstrating the gains that bolstered his prospect stock from “enticing toolbox” to “potential superstar.” He has taken walks in 15% of his plate appearances, thanks to a selective eye at the plate that, with the continuous adjustments that helped lower his strikeout rate in each of the last two seasons, should ultimately serve him well as he sets what could be an extremely high level of performance.
Steer came over from the Minnesota Twins organization during what looks like a tremendously savvy 2022 trade deadline for Reds GM Nick Krall. In a trade that sent mid-rotation starter Tyler Mahle to Minnesota, the Reds got both Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, a corner infield prospect who is banging down the door to the big leagues. In 45 games at Triple-A so far, he is batting .354 with 17 homers.
All of this is beginning to create the best problem a baseball team can have: more talented players than positions. The Reds are one call-up away from having five good, young infielders: De La Cruz, McLain, Steer, Encarnacion-Strand and India, the 2021 NL Rookie of the Year and apparent team leader who slots in at second base, at least for now. That doesn’t even account for team legend Joey Votto, who is working his way back on a rehab assignment.
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