{"id":103377,"date":"2026-01-17T17:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T17:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103377\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T17:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T17:20:10","slug":"reds-star-elly-de-la-cruz-turned-down-franchise-record-extension-wtih-major-free-agency-implications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103377\/","title":{"rendered":"Reds star Elly De La Cruz turned down franchise-record extension wtih major free agency implications"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The price on Elly De La Cruz only will continue to rise, but the Reds have been unable to get their dynamic young shortstop to agree to a long-term contract extension.<\/p>\n<p>Even before the 2025 season, De La Cruz rejected an offer that would have surpassed Joey Votto\u2019s mark as the richest in team history, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6978288\/2026\/01\/16\/cincinnati-reds-elly-de-la-cruz-contract-extension-tabled\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=mlbtw&amp;source=mlbtw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to multiple reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old De La Cruz has made the All-Star team in two of his first three seasons with the Reds, finishing last year with 22 home runs, 37 stolen bases and a career-best 86 RBIs.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38210148\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/teammates-shower-cincinnati-reds-elly-116763579.jpg\" alt=\"Cincinnati Reds player Elly De La Cruz in the dugout, showered with play money by teammates.\" class=\"wp-image-38210148\"  \/>The Reds apparently didn\u2019t offer Elly De La Cruz enough money. AP<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe made Elly an offer that would have made him the highest-paid Red ever,\u201d team president Nick Krall told The Athletic on Friday. \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<p>Votto, a six-time All-Star over 17 seasons with the Reds, signed a 10-year deal worth $225 million in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>De La Cruz, who is represented by Scott Boras, is under team control for four more seasons and won\u2019t be eligible for free agency until after the 2029 season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI let my agent take care of all of that,\u201d De La Cruz told reporters at the team\u2019s fan fest.<\/p>\n<p>Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. inked an 11-year, $288 million extension in 2024 to remain in small-market Kansas City.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38210155\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/smiles-final-9th-inning-cincinnati-84863653.jpg\" alt=\"Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz smiling after the final out of the 9th inning.\" class=\"wp-image-38210155\"  \/>Elly De La Cruz is still under team control for four more seasons. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n<p>Young stars such as Atlanta\u2019s Ronald Acuna and Arizona\u2019s Corbin Carroll also are among those to have signed nine-figure extensions in recent years to bypass arbitration and put off free agency.<\/p>\n<p>Juan Soto, another Boras client, was a high-profile example of a player who turned down multiple extension offers early in his career, and he was traded from Washington to San Diego to the Yankees before landing a record $765 million contract with the Mets in free agency before last season.<\/p>\n<p>The Reds signed pitcher Hunter Greene in 2023 to a six-year extension worth $53 million with a $21 million team option for 2029 to buy out multiple years of free agency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of guys on this club that are impact players that have a chance to be impact players,\u201d Krall added. \u201cHunter 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 conversation over the years, it\u2019s got to work out for both parties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The price on Elly De La Cruz only will continue to rise, but the Reds have been unable&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[32318,20,3473,21528,9,11,10,319],"class_list":["post-103377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-mlb-hot-stove","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}