Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz has been everything fans could have hoped for this season, except in one key area: strikeouts.
De La Cruz has been striking out at a record-setting pace this season, and it’s only been getting worse. He had struck out 20 times in his last 37 at-bats entering Thursday’s game at St. Louis.
He kept that trend going in his first two at-bats against Sonny Gray on Thursday as he struck out two more times — passing Adam Dunn (195 strikeouts in 2004) for the second-most strikeouts in a single season in franchise history.
De La Cruz’s 196 strikeouts lead Major League Baseball and have him firmly on pace to pass former Red Drew Stubbs, who struck out a whopping 205 times in 2011.
If he continues on this pace (1.34 strikeouts per game), he would finish this season with 214 strikeouts.
That's concerning to see, but it also offers some room for optimism.
Despite those struggles, De La Cruz has still been the Reds’ best position player with 4.7 WAR, a .342 on-base percentage, 23 home runs, and a major league-best 64 stolen bases.
The strikeouts haven’t entirely been his fault.
According to a Sports Illustrated article, De La Cruz has struck out looking at pitches outside of the strike zone 13 times this season. The article also states that De La Cruz ranks seventh in MLB for pitches outside of the strike zone being called strikes, per Baseball Savant.
If he can find a way to cut down on his strikeout problem (hopefully with some better calls from home plate umpires), he could become an MVP-caliber player in the not-too-distant future, and hopefully set some more worthwhile franchise records along the way.
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