{"id":414774,"date":"2026-01-17T06:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/414774\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T06:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:40:07","slug":"report-elly-de-la-cruz-turned-down-largest-contract-in-reds-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/414774\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Elly De La Cruz turned down largest contract in Reds history"},"content":{"rendered":"

With record-setting deals being handed out across MLB in recent seasons, the Cincinnati Reds<\/a> reportedly tried to get into the mix last spring.<\/p>\n

According to The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans<\/a> on Friday, the Reds extended an offer to star shortstop Elly De Le Cruz that would have been the largest contract in franchise history, besting the 10-year, $225-million deal Canadian Joey Votto signed in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made Elly an offer that would\u2019ve made him the highest-paid Red ever,\u201d president of baseball operations Nick Krall said, per Rosecrans. \u201cThat\u2019s not where he is and you respect that. It\u2019s their career. You keep going and you keep working on what you can do today.\u201d<\/p>\n

De La Cruz, who just turned 24, is coming off a 2025 season in which he smashed 22 homers, drove in 86 runs and stole 37 bases while leading the Reds to their first post-season appearance since 2020.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-five switch-hitter has developed into one of the most exciting young players in baseball, thanks to a combination of tools that help him stand out in almost all aspects of the game.<\/p>\n

Last season, De La Cruz ranked in the 91st percentile of big-leaguers in sprint speed, the 93rd percentile in arm strength and the 98th percentile of max exit velocity.<\/p>\n

And while all those abilities have yet to culminate in a truly dominant season, De La Cruz has already built a resume as a top-10 MVP finisher and two-time all-star in three MLB campaigns.<\/p>\n

De La Cruz is set to enter arbitration for the first time following the 2026 season and will be eligible for free agency in the winter of 2029. He is represented by Scott Boras.<\/p>\n

\u201cI let my agent take care of all of that,\u201d De La Cruz said Friday at Redsfest.<\/p>\n

In addition to the effort to extend De La Cruz, Krall said that the Reds have approached other young players about extension, but haven’t been able to finalize any deals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of guys on this club that are impact players that have a chance to be impact players,\u201d Krall said. \u201cHunter (Greene) took a deal and that was great. We love having him and he\u2019s an anchor starter for us. We\u2019ve had a lot of conversations over the years, it\u2019s got to work out on both parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the extension talks, De La Cruz also confirmed Friday that he will not be suiting up for the Dominican Republic at the upcoming World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

“It was the team\u2019s choice because I was dealing with the quad and they didn\u2019t want me to play,” he said, per MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon<\/a>. “I mean, I want to play. I want to represent my country, but I believe in (the Reds). I\u2019ll definitely want to play in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With record-setting deals being handed out across MLB in recent seasons, the Cincinnati Reds reportedly tried to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-414774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}