Record-breaking milestones from Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart signal a historic era in Cincinnati, forcing the front office to capitalize before a looming financial crossroads.
The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 7-5 on Sunday night in one of the more entertaining games of the season for Reds fans.
Sal Stewart’s power was on display with a deep shot to center field, his third home run of the series. Stewart and NL MVP favorite Pete Crow-Armstrong combined for eight home runs in the series.
Chase Burns got the start, throwing 5.2 innings and allowing two earned runs, including a competitive at-bat against Pedro Ramirez in the sixth inning, who was the last hitter Burns faced. He retired Ramirez before being pulled for Brock Burke, who got the Reds out of the inning with the tying run at the plate for the Cubs.
Elly De La Cruz showed off his speed with an infield single, his second hit of the game.
OptaSTATS on X posted a very interesting stat early Monday morning, pointing out that this young Reds core has made Major League Baseball history, being the first team ever to have a hitter under 25 years old with 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, another hitter under 25 with 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases, and a pitcher under 25 with 15 wins.
This is further proof that the Reds have one of the best young cores in all of Major League Baseball. It’s also further proof of the deep-rooted dysfunction within the franchise that the front office failed to build a competitive roster to complement these three players.
Cincinnati is now in a two-to-three-year window to compete for a championship, and that window largely revolves around Elly De La Cruz. It has long been thought that Cincinnati won’t be able to sign De La Cruz to a long-term extension, and Joey Votto seemingly confirmed that on the broadcast Sunday night.
Votto plainly said the Reds won’t be able to afford him because he’ll cost the GDP of a small country. Reports indicate the Reds offered De La Cruz the largest contract in franchise history, and he turned it down.
De La Cruz is under contract through 2029. The Reds basically need to build a roster that would make it hard to justify trading De La Cruz in the 2028 or 2029 season. Yes, Hunter Greene’s injury, which will keep him out for most of the 2027 season, throws a wrench into things.
However, there are very few teams in Major League Baseball that have two players each making $800k or less who could win the MVP, and a starter who could very well win the Cy Young Award and will be making under $3 million in 2027.
The Reds have to take advantage of their current roster and talent pool on affordable contracts and chase a World Series while they have championship-caliber players. That’s what small-market teams have to do.
