An analyst with 143,000 impressions on X put it bluntly: the Dodgers should trade their entire farm — Josue De Paula included — to get Elly De La Cruz out of Cincinnati. The premise is Mookie Betts, who turns 34 in the 2027 season and, the argument goes, should probably move back to second base sooner rather than later. The cost would be enormous. But De La Cruz’s numbers make the conversation worth having.
Betts, the age question, and the shortstop experiment
Betts moved to shortstop for the Dodgers in 2025 — his first full season at the position after just 73 career starts there. The results were mixed. Defensively, it worked: he finished second among all MLB shortstops in Outs Above Average (21), trailing only Bobby Witt Jr. (24), and took home the Fielding Bible Award. At the plate, it was a different story.
His 2025 was his worst offensive season, posting a .258/.326/.406 slash line with a .732 OPS, partly derailed by a gastrointestinal illness that caused severe weight loss early in the year. In 2026, the bat hasn’t bounced back: through early September, Betts is hitting .244 with a .724 OPS and 17 home runs in 102 games.
That’s the seed of the argument. Betts carries a .288 career batting average and 308 career home runs. If he’s been below that level for two straight seasons and is already 33, does it still make sense to ask him to man the most demanding defensive position on the field? There’s no clean answer — but the debate is real.
One note: Betts went .360 with 2 home runs and 11 RBI in the first six games of September, which complicates the decline narrative. But one hot week doesn’t erase 102 games of context.
What it would cost to get De La Cruz — and why the Reds don’t give anything away
The proposal from analyst Doug McKain (@DMAC_LA) is straightforward: send the whole farm, De Paula included, for Elly De La Cruz. The 24-year-old Venezuelan has three years of arbitration control — he enters arb after 2026 and the Reds hold him through 2029 — and is earning just $800,000 in 2026. For any contending team, that’s nearly monopoly money for a player of his caliber.
But the Reds don’t sell cheap. Before the August 3, 2026 trade deadline, the Red Sox made a formal offer centered on prospects. Cincinnati turned it down and made their price clear: they want young talent with a shot at immediate big-league impact, not a long-term development package. The Dodgers would face the exact same conversation.
Josue De Paula is the Dodgers’ No. 1 prospect and sixth-best in all of MLB. In 121 games at Double-A Tulsa in 2026, he hit .303 with a .943 OPS, 26 home runs, and 101 RBI — and became the first Dodger at any level to put up a 25-25 season (home runs and stolen bases). Around the deadline, the organization called him untouchable. Moving him would be the biggest swing LA has taken in a long time.
Why De La Cruz is worth that bet — in numbers, not hype
The debate around De La Cruz always lands in the same place: he looks electric in person, but do the numbers back it up? In 2026, they do. Through 126 games, he’s hitting .283 with an .868 OPS and an xwOBA of .371 — 93rd percentile league-wide — meaning the quality of his contact suggests he should actually be producing even more than he already is.
What makes De La Cruz special isn’t just power. His average exit velocity of 94.4 mph puts him in the 99th percentile of all of MLB. His barrel rate sits at 15.5% (95th percentile) and his hard-hit rate at 52.6% (95th percentile). He also runs: sprint speed in the 80th percentile, which explains his 25 stolen bases in 2026. That’s a complete package for a 24-year-old under team control.
The one blemish is contact: 29th percentile in whiff rate, 16th percentile in strikeout rate. De La Cruz swings and misses — a lot. But with contact quality numbers like his, most contenders are willing to pay that price.
De La Cruz by the numbers — 2026 Statcast
- 564 plate appearances
- 25 home runs, 69 RBI
- AVG: .283 | OPS: .868
- xwOBA: .371 (93rd percentile)
- Average exit velocity: 94.4 mph (99th percentile)
- Barrel rate: 15.5% (95th percentile)
- Hard-hit rate: 52.6% (95th percentile)
- Average bat speed: 75.9 mph (91st percentile)
- Sprint speed: 80th percentile
- 25 stolen bases
The Cincinnati Reds shortstop isn’t showing up on radars by accident. The Statcast data validates what scouts have been saying — and for a Dodgers team facing real questions at shortstop, the numbers make this one of the most fascinating what-ifs of the 2026 offseason conversation.
