The week Cincinnati Reds SS Elly De La Cruz went from MLB spectacle to big-league All-Star

One inning after Elly De La Cruz scattered a group of Yankees pitchers with a home run into the New York bullpen, Aaron Judge found himself at second base, getting his first up-close look at the Cincinnati Reds’ powerful young shortstop.

“I said, ‘Man, that’s all you got?’ “ the Yankees superstar said.

As they laughed during a series opener in the Bronx that De La Cruz turned into a personal showcase, Judge had just become a sixth-time All-Star as the major-league leader in fan voting.

Out of the lineup: Elly De La Cruz's off day vs. Rockies not injury related

De La Cruz didn’t know it, but he was about to joins Judge in Texas for this week’s All-Star Game, at 22 the youngest Reds All-Star since right-hander Wayne Simpson in 1970 and youngest non-pitcher since Johnny Bench made it as a 21-year-old catcher in 1969.

Whether that signals an indication of things to come in De La Cruz’s rise among the next generation of MLB stars coming behind Judge, “I’ll definitely be following him the rest of the way,” Judge said.

For now the rise of the Reds’ shortstop from spectacular baseball curiosity as he opened his first full season to bona fide big-league All-Star can be traced to a week in April.

“I feel like he found a routine and he’s sticking with that routine. Every single day he’s coming in early,” said teammate Jeimer Candelario, the veteran switch-hitter signed last winter in part to help mentor De La Cruz.

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De La Cruz wasn't fazed by terrible stretch

The young shortstop already had a daily pregame and postgame routine when he started the season. But a rough nine-game start that included a four-strikeout game and a three-error game (later reduced to two by a scoring change) left him with an enormous 46-percent strikeout rate and a reality check.

De La Cruz said he didn’t change anything specific.

“I was the same. I always work a lot, before the games and practice,” he said. “I didn’t change.”

But those around him say he started showing up earlier to the ballpark, rededicating himself to his fielding work.

“Little stuff added defensively, and he’s spending more time in the cages, preparing more,” bench coach Freddie Benavides said. “He (was) doing a little bit of different things and trying to see what fits for him.”

And whether the approach was dramatically altered, the perception around him was. And so were the results.

Then came Game 10, against the Brewers. And his first home run of the season, over the center field wall. And his second, under the glove of diving center fielder Sal Frelick for an inside-the-park thriller.

“That electrifies a stadium,” De La Cruz said after that game. “That’s what I like. The fans like it, and I like it.”

And maybe it even launched an All-Star bid. It opened a 35-game run that included nine home runs, 25 stolen bases, a .287 average and .941 OPS, putting him in the middle of the All-Star conversation until the rosters were announced.

Taking the good and bad in equal stride

No denying where his season pivoted. Even his fielding has been remarkably more consistent, the routine plays now being made routinely with the exceptional players added two or three times a series.

“The season changed,” he said. “But, I mean, there’s going to be bad moments and good moments, always. There’s always going to be struggles, and you’re going to have to get through that.”

If it wasn’t specifically a different approach after those first nine games, the extra time spent on fixing things and improving has been evident ever since.

He even discussed at one point in May dedicating one day per series to do most of his media obligations to try to cut down on distractions.

“I just think the game teaches you,” said De La Cruz’s agent, Scott Boras, a former minor-league infielder who has represented some of the biggest stars in the game. “This kid has great desire. He wants to be what he should be. And the game teaches you what works for you. And I think as the season started, he found out what wasn’t, and then what was.”

If De La Cruz became an All-Star player some time during that sprint around the bases in early April, he has been a baseball phenomenon like few Reds before him since the day he got to the big leagues in June of last year.

In New York, throngs crowded the rail near the Reds’ dugout during batting practice calling his name for the chance at an autograph, a brief exchange, a glance.

“Elly, Elly, Elly!”

It’s a scene that plays out in every city, from the ballparks to the team hotels, where fans often gather in “44” Reds jerseys before the team bus arrives.

Rick Stowe, the Reds’ clubhouse operations boss who has been with the organization since he was a bat boy in 1981, said he remembers only one other player who got that kind of rock star attention in the last four decades.

De La Cruz's celebrity rivals that of Ken Griffey Jr.'s return

“It’s like when Junior came to us that first year,” Stowe said, referring to Ken Griffey Jr.’s arrival for the 2000 season. “The first couple years with Junior.”

The biggest difference – other than the fact De La Cruz actually looks like a rock star – is that Griffey was a 30-year-old veteran well on his way to the Hall of Fame by the time he returned to play in his hometown.

“Elly’s been here a year,” Stowe said. “And the world knows him.

“And it’s unbelievable how he handles it,” Stowe added. “It doesn’t bother him a little bit. It doesn’t faze him.”

As much as anything, that might be the most powerful, fastest part of De La Cruz’s skillset: the mental part. The quick mind. The emotional footing.

Before he debuted, he filmed a trailer for a Tom Cruise movie. Before he officially made the All-Star team, MLB released a promotional video highlighting his “fastest man alive” speed.

In between, he worked, fought off slumps and grew into a more complete, more consistent player, worthy of an All-Star selection.

De La Cruz is better for the hard lessons learned

“He’s so much smarter and mature this year,” double-play partner Jonathan India said. “It’s so cool to watch. I talk to him a lot in the infield, and he sees things that I’m seeing.

“He’s just becoming a baseball player. Not just a superstar,” India said, “but he’s an actual baseball player. He knows the game now. It’s beautiful to watch.”

Benavides said he saw a difference right away in spring training, even in something as simple as De La Cruz’s weight room regimen.

“It was tough to get him in there last year,” Benavides said. “Some guys are like that. They’re physically talented tool-wise, and it’s like, ‘I’m doing fine.’ A lot of guys have that type of mentality.

“He’s here early now. He gets his work. He gets his stretch.”

Those around him say De La Cruz is at a different level this year with not only his daily prep work but also diligence.

Asked if he found anything fun to do in the sprawling suburbia of Arlington, Texas, when the Reds were there earlier this season, he said he didn’t, because “I just went from the ballpark to the hotel.”

Maybe some of that was the miserable second-half slump he experienced in his longest baseball season last year after hitting so many high notes during a spectacular opening five weeks in the majors.

And whether he admits anyone got in his ear to offer any advice early this season, advisors from Benavides to Boras to manager David Bell had plenty to say to help him prepare for this biggest season of his career.

Worked to improve even in the offseason

That’s how he wound up paired with another Boras client, Juan Soto, for a lot of his offseason work and how he found Fernando Tatis Sr., an 11-year former big-leaguer, to help with his hitting approach.

“He helped me staying back, my swing, my mechanics, a lot,” De La Cruz said.

Fernando Tatis Jr., the Padres All-Star, laughed when asked if his dad was teaching De La Cruz to hit like Tatis Jr. does.

“Not like me,” he said. “Elly’s a unique talent.

“I think he has better skills than myself,” Tatis Jr. said. “He’s definitely faster than me. And his power is on a different level. I just wish him the best that he can show it on a consistent basis on the baseball field.”

That’s where working with experienced and accomplished mentors such as Soto and Tatis Sr. come in.

“This game is really about your mentality and mindset that you bring every single day,” Tatis Jr. said, “and your body just follows through that. I think he’s finding some good help and the right people around him to be the superstar that he is.”

Tatis Jr. wondered if his dad might have helped nudge De La Cruz that second week of the season when he was looking for answers. De La Cruz said they didn't talk then, although they've occasionally stayed in touch since the winter.

If anything, that moment in April might have more awareness and discovery, maybe even a wakeup all after the quick dose of disappointment.

“It’s different in spring training and the season,” Candelario said. “You can have success in spring training, but it’s when things start working out for you in the season that you see that routine and stick with it. That’s what I see.

“He’s coming in early, he’s doing his stuff to be prepared and perform. And he’s sticking with it,” he said.

“That means he’s being smart.”

His game also includes so many, different, important facets to improve and maintain because of his switch-hitting, his speed and his fielding at a marquee position, Candelario said.

De La Cruz wants to be out there every game

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“I asked him, ‘What’s our major goal this year?’ “ Boras said. “He said, ‘I want to play every game.’

“ ‘Well, you’re not going to play every game, but I want you to have that goal.’ “

Through the first week of July he was the only Red to play every game.

“The way he’s playing, it’s hard to take him out of the lineup,” Bell said.

“To play every game, what do you have to do?” Benavides said. “You’ve got to do your work, you’ve got to do your stretching, you’ve got to make sure you’re in the training room if you’re banged up. You’ve got to make sure you’re in the weight room.”

That's what he's doing now, said Benavides, who then stopped himself to remember that De La Cruz just turned 22 this year.

"He’s really growing up, man," the coach said. "It’s great to see every day. It’s unbelievable.”

Maybe not so much anymore. Not after the way he debuted last year, the way he hit for the cycle in his 15th career game, stole third and home on one pitch in Milwaukee last July, hit a ball out of the stadium in Milwaukee, had four-hit games in each of his two career series at Dodger Stadium, hit a ball onto the riverboat above the batter's eye at home last month and then in his first career game at Yankee Stadium stole Judge's thunder.

“Any time you have a triple from one side of the plate and a home run from the other — especially when you have a triple at Yankee Stadium in one of the shortest right fields in the game — that’s pretty impressive,” Judge said. “And it’s amazing at that size he’s playing shortstop as well as he does.”

One thing's for sure: All eyes will be on him in Texas.

“He always plays up to the stage that we’re on,” teammate Graham Ashcraft said. “There’s no telling what he’ll do.”

Not that it will surprise anyone around the Reds, especially this year.

The night he hit the mammoth home run onto the riverboat, India had been joking with him during batting practice about it being too hard for him to do.

Which raised the question postgame: Is that all it takes? Somebody tells him it's hard to do something and then he does it?

"I mean, I try," he said.

Said India: "I think he’s basically done everything now. The last thing was the boat. The next thing, do I have to say hit it into the water?

“I don’t know if he can do that," India mused. "But I don’t know. He keeps surprising us.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The week Cincinnati Reds SS Elly De La Cruz became an All-Star