With playoff hopes fading and the superstar shortstop nursing a recurring quad injury, Cincinnati faces a pivotal decision: prioritize immediate sparks or protect their franchise cornerstone’s future.
The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 7-5 on Sunday night, and while there were a lot of exciting moments, including four home runs and a great start by Chase Burns, Cincinnati got some concerning news about one of their superstars.
Shortstop Elly De La Cruz left the game in the seventh inning due to quad tightness. NBC play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti initially said De La Cruz was removed for a defensive replacement, since it came shortly after he made an error in the sixth inning. Luckily for Benetti, Jeff Brantley was in the booth and quickly corrected him, saying that if De La Cruz left the game, something had to be wrong because he so rarely misses time.
The Reds quickly provided an update, saying he was pulled due to quad tightness, which Brantley said De La Cruz has struggled with this season.
De La Cruz also missed almost a month earlier in the season with a hamstring injury that put him on the 10-day IL, ultimately leading to Edwin Arroyo being called up from the minors to make his debut in early June.
This latest injury begs the question: What should the Reds do about this injury? Terry Francona said after the game that he thinks De La Cruz could play on Monday, and that the quad injury wasn’t too serious. However, given the circumstances of the season, I really think the Reds should shut down De La Cruz for the remainder of the year. They already lost a core player in Hunter Greene for the majority of the 2027 season. Considering the Reds are in last place and basically need a miracle to make the postseason, is it worth it to run him out every day?
Maybe this is a Joe Burrow thing where, if he’s healthy, De La Cruz wants to play no matter what, and angering him could hurt the current standing of the relationship between De La Cruz and the Reds. But if this injury is bad enough for him to miss a couple of games, I really think the Reds should push to shut him down, given the slim margin of error the Reds have injury-wise.
It’s also worth allowing Edwin Arroyo to play every day to see what you have in the rookie infielder. He didn’t impress too much during his stint after De La Cruz’s initial injury, as he wasn’t able to show off the power that he had shown rather consistently in the minor leagues.
