Elly De La Cruz

Krall clarified that the partial tear or strain was more of a nagging issue than something that should have knocked him out of the lineup. Which obviously had to be the case, since De La Cruz went on to play in every single game last season. It wasn't any big secret that De La Cruz wasn't 100 percent in the second half of the season, but it's nice to have some kind of clarification into what was going on. De La Cruz should still very much be a first-round pick in 2026 drafts.

Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall revealed this week that De La Cruz played through a left quad strain from late July through the end of the season, Mark Sheldon and Manny Randhawa of MLB.com report.