Last night, Elly De La Cruz wrote a line in the MLB record books that had never existed before. The 24-year-old Dominican shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds became the first Latin American-born shortstop in history to post three seasons of 20 or more home runs and 20 or more stolen bases before his 25th birthday. He’s 6’5″, has fewer than three full big-league seasons under his belt, and he’s already redefined what a shortstop can look like.
The Numbers Behind the Milestone
To appreciate the weight of this, consider the short list of players in MLB history with at least 20 home runs and 60 stolen bases in a single season: Ronald Acuña Jr., Eric Davis, Rickey Henderson, and Joe Morgan — all Hall of Famers or headed there. De La Cruz joined that group in 2024, finishing with 25 HR and 67 SB — the first starting shortstop in league history to reach those numbers in one season.
The 2025 season was anything but easy. He played all 162 games with a partially torn quadriceps in the second half, and still closed with 20+ HR and 35 stolen bases. That season counts — and that’s the one that completes the three-season streak.
In 2026, with 19 HR and 20 SB in roughly 108 games, he’s on pace for a fourth straight 20-20 campaign. His slash line so far: .276 AVG / .855 OPS / 132 OPS+ — meaning he’s hitting 32% better than the average big-league hitter. His partial WAR of 3.4 puts him among the most valuable shortstops in the game, and Statcast backs up the raw power: 94 mph average exit velocity, 14.7% Barrel rate, and 51.9% Hard Hit rate.
Yes, his sprint speed has dipped — from 30.5 ft/s in 2023 to 28.1 ft/s in 2026 — but according to FanGraphs, sharper reads on pitchers have more than picked up the slack. He’s not the same explosion-off-the-blocks runner from his debut months. He’s a smarter one.
From Sabana Grande de Boyá to the History Books
De La Cruz was born on January 11, 2002, in Sabana Grande de Boyá, a small municipality in the Monte Plata province of the Dominican Republic. He signed with the Reds as an international free agent in 2018 and climbed through the minors faster than most scouts expected for someone built like a power forward. A 6’5″ everyday shortstop is a rarity the sport has rarely sustained — De La Cruz is sustaining it.
He debuted in MLB on June 6, 2023, at age 21. In fewer than three full seasons, he has accumulated:
- 72 home runs
- 148 stolen bases
- 241 RBI
- Two All-Star selections (2024 and 2025)
He is also the only player since 1900 to record 100 or more extra-base hits and 100 or more stolen bases in his first two MLB seasons.
And here’s the part that makes front offices around the league quietly envious: De La Cruz is earning $800,000 in 2026 on a pre-arbitration deal. He won’t hit arbitration until 2027 and won’t be eligible for free agency until 2030. The Reds have one of the most explosive and most underpaid players in baseball locked up for at least four more seasons.
The One Question Worth Asking
The sprint speed decline — from the fastest runner in MLB in 2023 to 28.1 ft/s today — is the only real debate point about whether De La Cruz can sustain this historical pace. The answer, so far, is that he’s adapted. Better pitch-reading has replaced raw speed as his primary stolen base tool, and his production on the bases hasn’t collapsed the way pure speed metrics might suggest.
What hasn’t changed at all is the power. A 14.7% Barrel rate and 94 mph exit velocity are middle-of-the-order numbers in any lineup in this league — not shortstop numbers. That combination of retained speed and elite raw power is exactly why no Latin American shortstop had ever reached this milestone before last night.
He’s 24. He has at least four seasons left in Cincinnati before free agency. The list of records still within reach is long.
