3 Reds on thin ice with playoff hopes slipping away

Reds: Elly De La Cruz has seen some regression to the mean following his scorching start

When Ely De La Cruz arrived in Cincinnati, he came with huge expectations. He was one of the top prospects in baseball and he was seen as a Statcast unicorn, topping the charts in infield velocity, exit velocity and sprint speed.

He ended up living up to the hype over the course of the first few weeks in the big leagues where he broke Statcast records for sprint speed and infield velocity, hit monstrous home runs, and even tallied a cycle as a 21-year-old. But as the old saying goes, baseball is a game of failure, and nobody is exempt from this reality. Even the incredible Elly De La Cruz.

During the month of August, Elly has struck out at least twice in eight of the Reds’ 10 games. He hasn’t recorded a stolen base in almost a month after stealing 17 bags in his first month and a half. Some of this struggle may be attributed to the move to the leadoff spot.

Now, before anybody lights the world on fire about this, Elly is fine. He isn’t a bust and he’s far from a bad player. His ceiling remains among the highest in the league and the young man is one of the most exciting players to watch. But the Reds roll when Elly is hot and they seem to crumble when he’s not and recently, he hasn’t been very hot.