By now you are all well aware of the quad issue that plagued Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz during the second half of the 2025 season. He rolled into the All Star Game having already hit 18 homers on the season, sporting a .495 slugging percentage and .854 OPS at the time.
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During the season’s second “half,” or the final 65 games after the break, he swatted just 4 bombs, slugged just .363, and sported a meager .666 OPS. Clearly the leg was a problem despite him still playing each and every single day, and that was reflected in the decline in his sprint speed, too.
When he broke in during the 2023 season, he was at 30.5 feet per second – in the 100th percentile.
During his first full season in 2024 (when he swiped an MLB-best 67 bags), he was at 30.0 – once again in the 100th percentile.
During that 2025 season with the quad issue, though, he slipped a bit. He still ranked in the 91st percentile overall, but his speed was down to just 29.1.
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The Elly we’ve seen so far in 2026 sure looks like he’s not dealing with any quad issues anymore. He’s hitting .290/.356/.525 (.881 OPS) through 50 games, and he’s already swatted 11 homers. Despite the spike in on-base percentage, he’s not nearly on the same pace when it comes to stealing bags, however – he has just 9 on 13 attempts, perhaps impacted by the fact that so many more of his hits so far this season have been of the extra-base variety than in previous years.
It’s not the decline in steals that jumps off the page to me, however. We know manager Terry Francona is much less inclined to push the issue on the bases than was David Bell, who managed during Elly’s league-best steals season in 2024. What’s puzzling to me is that despite Elly a) being 100% healthy this year, by all reports and b) having dealt with a pretty serious quad injury in 2025, he’s actually slower this year than he was last year.
It’s by a significant amount, too. So far in 2026, he’s averaging just 28.1 feet per second when sprinting, and that’s all the way down to the 74th percentile. That’s slower than Blake Dunn (30.0), Noelvi Marte (28.9), Will Benson (28.7), Matt McLain (28.6), and even Spencer Steer (28.3). Elly, who a blink ago was the fastest, most electric runner in the sport, is now just the 6th fastest player who’s donned a Reds uniform this season.
He ranks tied for 107th on the overall MLB leaderboard, and is even slower than 35 year old Phillies catcher JT Realmuto (28.2). Jake Fraley, perpetually on at least one bad hamstring, is faster at 28.3.
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I’m not at all sure the origins of this decline. Perhaps it’s still just early season noise, and he’s just not had enough opportunities to motor to 1B on a weakly hit grounder on infield, or to try to score from 1B on a ball in play. Perhaps as the summer heat rolls in he’ll unleash a few faster runs and make this somewhat a moot point.
For now, though, it’s hard not to notice that despite still being just 24 years old and, reportedly, fully healthy, he’s slowed down pretty significantly even from his time playing hurt.
