A unicorn lands in Cincinnati

CINCINNATI - Everyone around the Reds has an Elly De La Cruz story.

Fellow Cincinnati prospect Andrew Abbott, a left-handed pitcher who recently debuted with the club, doesn't have to think too hard. He and De La Cruz, Baseball America's No. 1 overall prospect at the time of his debut last week, have spent a lot of time together rising through the system.

It sounds like one of baseball's tall tales: the story of the 512-foot home run. But it happened last season when they were both playing for Double-A Chattanooga.

"Both dugouts ran to the TrackMan (data) to see as soon as he made contact. It was, 'Oh my God,'" Abbott said last week.

"It was like 118 mph and 512 (feet) at Chattanooga. (The reaction) was: 'Oooof.'"

In more than eight years of Statcast data at the major-league level, there have been only three home runs with projected distances of 500 or more feet. Two of those, via Giancarlo Stanton in 2016 and C.J. Cron in 2022, were hit in the thin air at Coors Field in Denver. Both were calculated at 504 feet. Nomar Mazara hit one on a hot June night in Texas in 2019 that came in at 505 feet.

Chattanooga is a mere 676 feet above sea level. And none of those measured up to De La Cruz's 512-foot shot.

Shawn Pender, the Reds' director of player development, has stories, too.

He remembers the phone calls he received back in July 2021. Chris Tremie, the Reds' field coordinator, and Bryan LaHair, the complex team manager, were clamoring for the 6-foot-5 shortstop to be promoted. Pender was skeptical.

"They wanted me to move him to (Low-A) Daytona," Pender said. "I was like, 'Let's slow down. I'm coming in next week.'"

Could De La Cruz really be dominating? He'd played just a handful of games that season. In fact, he'd played fewer than 50 career games in affiliated ball since signing as an international free agent from the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2018 as a 16-year-old with only 130 pounds spread across his yet-to-be-complete 6-2 frame.

Pender made the trip to Goodyear, Arizona, and drove straight to the park from the airport.

"Literally, it's the first time I am watching with a clear focus on him. He's playing short, he makes all the plays. Then he runs down the (first-base) line at 4.07 seconds from the left side. And in the fourth inning - he's already had a double and single - he hits a ball over the batter's eye in center field."

It's 410 feet to center field in Goodyear.

"I immediately got on the phone with our traveling secretary and said, 'Yeah, he's going to go to Daytona tomorrow."

De La Cruz made his first big jump in the prospect rankings in 2022, debuting on Baseball America's list at No. 77 overall. He was No. 4 this preseason.

While many in the Reds' development and scouting ranks have their Elly stories, the 40,000 or so fans who attended Cruz's first two MLB games last week at Great American Ball Park walked away with their own, too.

They witnessed a 21-year-old unicorn arrive on the north bank of the Ohio River, a player type rarely seen in MLB history, and one who developed in an unusual manner. He's giving Cincinnati must-watch at-bats for the first time in who knows how long.

In his Tuesday debut against the Dodgers, Cruz recorded the hardest-hit ball by a Reds batter this season (112 mph) for his first hit, a double. The mark wouldn't last long.

In the first inning of his second game, he left fans and uniformed personnel slack-jawed.

Hitting from the left side, De La Cruz somehow got his bat's barrel - in a blur of movement - to a perfectly placed up-and-in Noah Syndergaard fastball. He nearly hit the ball out of the stadium; it came to rest in the last row of the right-field seats.

Third-base umpire Carlos Torres covered his mouth and uttered something.

Reds play-by-play voice John Sadak lamented of the home run: "That ball had a family!" (T-shirts bearing the quote were available within hours.)

Reds outfielder TJ Friedl hadn't seen much of De La Cruz in live games.

"My jaw dropped," Friedl told reporters after bearing witness. "One of the most impressive parts was that the pitch was dotted up and in."

Abbott said: "I went up to him and I said, 'You didn't even get that ball!' I've seen his furthest ones. He said, 'No, I missed it a little bit.'"

Matt McLain, another top-rated Reds infield prospect to debut this year, has also seen plenty of De La Cruz bombs.

"It was sick," he said. "I was telling people he could hit it over the stands. He will."

The local high school kid who caught the ball didn't make an outrageous trade request for the career souvenir, and he and his pals received quite the memory:

Remember: That's just what he did in the first inning.

In the third inning, De La Cruz hit a liner into the right-center gap. The tight confines of GABP make it the least likely place for triples in the majors. But De La Cruz sprinted from the box, took up enormous stretches of ground with each stride as he raced around second, and easily reached third.

It was the fastest home-to-third time in the majors this season (10.83 seconds), surpassing Arizona's Corbin Carroll (10.97 seconds).

Not bad for an hour's work.

By Sunday, De La Cruz had dubbed himself "the fastest man in the world." It's not bragging if you can back it up.

During batting practice before last Wednesday's game, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and some teammates took some swings on the field. Burrow hit a couple of balls out. He's been to the Super Bowl. But maybe he's not the most talented athlete in town anymore.

What else can De La Cruz do, the greedy among us might ask?

Well, he can also throw the ball faster across the infield than anyone else at Triple-A or the majors this year, recording a throw of 100.2 mph from shortstop.

De La Cruz possesses a tools profile that rarely exists outside of virtual players created in video games; we're talking scales pushed to 99 grades in various skill categories. Might as well make him a switch-hitter, too.

He's leaving even veteran baseball professionals in awe.

In the media dining hall Thursday morning, Hall of Fame Reds shortstop Barry Larkin made a comparison to Eric Davis' skill set. Davis hit 37 home runs and stole 50 bases in 1987. He had 27 homers and 80 steals the year before. De La Cruz's skills are so loud, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith was even seen on the dining area's flatscreen TV talking about him - baseball made ESPN's morning programming.

Dodgers play-by-play voice Tim Neverett said he counted the strides De La Cruz needed to advance from first to second on the triple: nine.

Everyone was buzzing about the rookie.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was compelled to even place a Deion Sanders comp on the kid.

"As a fan, very exciting. Managing against him? Very scary," Roberts said. "You can hear about the tools but to see it in action, it's remarkable. The hit tool, the ability to control an at-bat, I've been very impressed with it in this short sample as far as checking off balls down below, being able to handle velocity at the top of the zone. He looked like Deion Sanders running around the bases on that triple. He really did. The ground he covers. The arm strength is an 80. The pure joy to play this game, to not be fazed in his debut. Those are the unicorns."

How do you identify and develop a unicorn?

He was available for a paltry $65,000 signing bonus because he was physically underdeveloped when the Reds' Latin American scouts Enmanuel Cartagena and Richard Jimenez first saw him at the Niche Baseball Academy in Santo Domingo, as MLB.com's Mark Sheldon reported. They liked his athletic movements and saw potential, but much projection was required.

"Basically, he was like a junior or sophomore in high school (who's) underdeveloped, physically, then they go off to college, or they sign, and all of a sudden they grow," Pender said.

"Elly's the perfect storm."

After the Reds got him on their Dominican Republic campus, there was a focus on nutrition, sleep, and workouts. He gained 45 pounds by the time Pender came to see him in 2021.

De La Cruz believes the COVID year was crucial. At a time when many viewed it as a lost year of minor-leaguer development, especially those like him who weren't invited to alternate sites, he used it to catch up.

He focused on getting stronger, adding weight, and developing skills.

"Every day, I was training as hard as I could," De La Cruz said through an interpreter. "During the pandemic, I worked out with my trainer back home. I didn't have an opportunity to play. Just hard work, physical work. I seriously worked so hard the whole time."

The strength combined with his athleticism give him the loudest position-player tools in MLB: top-of-the-scale 80 scouting grades in speed, arm, and raw power.

One of the key questions remaining: can 80-grade power translate to MLB game action?

Baseball success requires more than raw tools. Baseball isn't a track meet. Batting practice home-run displays don't count. Raw tools have to transition to become game skills.

There are questions about his contact ability, like there are with all long-limbed prospects including Pittsburgh's Oneil Cruz, another Statcast-breaking talent in the National League Central. Questions like these were asked about Aaron Judge at one point, too.

Pender believes De La Cruz's aptitude will set him apart, allowing him a chance to reach his potential. He has a couple of other Elly stories to underscore the point.

Before the Reds decided to call up Cruz last week, Pender was in Louisville to watch him and the Triple-A club for a few games, along with other club officials including general manager Nick Krall. There was an at-bat when De La Cruz hit a grounder between first and second for a single with a runner on second.

"First of all, he busts out of the box, which not a lot of guys do. But because he can run, and because he knows it's such a factor, he is running full speed," Pender said. "The right fielder, he's coming in hard, and it goes off his glove back behind him about seven or eight feet. Elly never breaks stride and he's hitting every corner of the base exactly how you would teach it. And goes in headfirst to third base with basically a single and a two-base error."

It was a speed showcase, but awareness and instinct were also required.

There was another example in Louisville, too, a little bloop single off a teammate's bat when De La Cruz was on second base.

"He saw where the outfielders were (before the pitch). When the ball got hit, he never hesitated. He took off. Ball landed seven to 10 feet in front of the center fielder and he scores standing up," Pender said. "It doesn't seem like much, but 99% of people would have never moved. They would not have been able to determine whether that ball was going to be caught or not.

"I'm sure he's going to make a mistake, be overaggressive, but I have not seen him make a bad read. And for a kid that young, who doesn't have the reps that everyone else does ... (that's) why he has a chance to be really special. He still has so many reps to go before he's really caught up with everyone else."

Pender added that De La Cruz is grasping English quickly as his second language.

When he's not around the press, De La Cruz prefers to not use a translator when speaking with club officials and teammates. He likes to challenge himself.

On that Louisville trip, Krall was focused on the little things, too, like De La Cruz's swing decisions. Was he laying off chase pitches? Offering at pitches he could damage?

Pitchers were already becoming less willing to challenge him. In one plate appearance, Krall watched as De La Cruz quickly enjoyed a 3-0 count. De La Cruz then took two strikes to reach a full count.

"He took a 3-2 fastball off the plate that was a good pitch, but he didn't go out of his zone. He took his walk," Krall said. "Just seeing him mature over time as a hitter, all the things he's done, and the physical talent, to watch him improve. That was a fun thing to watch."

The Reds have been harping on De La Cruz to be comfortable taking walks. He nearly doubled his walk rate in Triple-A (14%) this year while posting his lowest strikeout rate (26.9%) since his complex-league days. He's the type of athlete who usually only needs to be corrected or coached once to make an adjustment. More evidence of aptitude, Pender said.

He's always smiling, too. Pender said his teammates talk about his energy.

"I'm sure, instinctively, there's a little jealousy sometimes, but I'm just telling you, if you watch him after a week, 10 days, he likes when people bust his chops," Pender said. "He's very comfortable with who he is."

That aptitude and attitude are allowing De La Cruz to get the most out of modern player-development tools and practices that didn't exist a few years ago.

Before games, De La Cruz and McLain - potentially the left side of the Reds' infield into the next decade - like to engage in the same drill.

They place a high-velocity pitching machine on the floor of the indoor batting cage and have it fire dense, dimpled foam balls at them at the equivalent of mid-90s velocity. They like the balls shooting up toward them to exaggerate the effect of rising fastballs they often see.

"Foam balls are harder to square up and they are good on your hands," McLain said. "They don't beat up your hands before a game."

Said De La Cruz: "Those (pitches) are a little bit harder to handle, so when you get into game time, those balls are going to be easier to handle. That's why we practice like that every day."

That fastball he hit out against the Dodgers was up and in, almost in an impossible place to pull a ball 458 feet and keep it fair. But perhaps that pregame routine helped him. Perhaps it's an example of aptitude meeting rare skills.

Once the no-doubter was in the air, De La Cruz flipped his bat and flashed four fingers on each hand to his teammates in the dugout - his jersey number. No. 44 is here and he's baseball's next big thing.

Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.