What's next for De La Cruz, other Reds prospects?

This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon’s Reds Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CINCINNATI -- Reds top prospect and shortstop Elly De La Cruz was doing things in the Minor Leagues this past week that most hitters in the Major Leagues have yet to accomplish.

Of course, that begs the question from many: Why isn't De La Cruz in the big leagues already?

On Tuesday, in a Triple-A Louisville matchup against Columbus, during a three-hit night for the switch-hitter that included home runs from each side of the plate, De La Cruz's exit velocity for all three hits was above 116 mph. Since Statcast began in 2015, no Major League team – let alone one player – had achieved such a thing in a single game.

"That was a pretty special game he had [Tuesday] night. I saw the numbers and how hard he hit the ball," Reds manager David Bell said. "That’s one of the pillars of hitting: hitting the ball hard. You have to swing at strikes and hit the ball hard. [Those are] things we learned in Little League."

In MLB since Statcast started, only Giancarlo Stanton (six times) and Aaron Judge (once) have ever reached 116 mph on contact twice in the same game.

The No. 8 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline, De La Cruz was playing third base against Omaha on May 6 when he made a throw to first base that was tracked at 99.2 mph. It was the hardest throw by an infielder all season in the Majors and Minors. In that same game, he also hit a homer with an exit velocity of 116.3 mph.

De La Cruz, 21, opened the season on the injured list with a left hamstring strain and overcame a slow start offensively. He's batting .271/.367/.588 with six homers and 17 RBIs in 20 games. There are still concerns about his game, however. Although he drew a walk-off walk on Tuesday, he has only 12 walks overall compared to 26 strikeouts in 98 plate appearances. His willingness to chase outside the strike zone in the Minors would be exploited by more polished Major League pitchers.

As a former Minor League manager and player development director, Bell noted that he believes in Cincinnati's front office, scouts and Louisville manager Pat Kelly to do the right thing by De La Cruz.

"Having been in other positions gives me, I think, an advantage, a different perspective," Bell said. "You have to trust one another. That doesn’t mean you can’t have questions or conversations. That’s fun and that helps get it run, but it’s easy for me to trust that and it’s easy for me to focus on the team we have here and the players we have here."

De La Cruz isn't the only player at Louisville who has Reds fans dreaming about the future being closer to now. First baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand (No. 6 prospect) started '23 on the injured list with a back issue but already has nine homers and is batting .346/.369/.728. Another hitter who chases, however, Encarnacion-Strand has just one walk compared to 23 strikeouts.

"You're also facing players in A ball, Double-A, Triple-A and those players are different than the players we're going to face here," Reds general manager Nick Krall said. "So, there's a lot of different processes that we're looking at from those guys. How are you taking at bats? Are you going to be trying to survive up here versus thriving up here? We want them to come up and thrive, not guys that are going to come up and solely survive."

Matt McLain (No. 5) was the first of the group to get a callup, as a source told MLB.com he was being promoted to the Reds on Monday. McLain, who plays second base and shortstop, is hitting .348/.474/.710 and leads Louisville with 12 homers in 138 at-bats. Then there is left-handed pitcher Andrew Abbott (No. 10), who made a strong transition from Double-A Chattanooga to Louisville in the past few weeks.

And if you're wondering if there's service-time manipulation going on with any of these players, that hasn't been the Reds way. Jonathan India, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Tyler Stephenson and Alexis Díaz are among younger players on the big league team who weren't held back.

"We're looking at each guy as an individual person and each person has to improve on different things," Krall said. "Sometimes it's defense, sometimes it's offense, sometimes it's approach, sometimes it's using the whole field, sometimes it's pitch mix, sometimes it's certain pitches. So, there's a lot of things that you can look at for each guy, but each guy's got to hit their marks before we decide to call them up."