Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds has made MLB history by becoming the first shortstop since 1900 to achieve five home runs and five stolen bases in the first 16 games of a season.
Reds' Elly De La Cruz makes baseball history not done since 1900 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Elly De La Cruz stands all alone in MLB history.
The Cincinnati Reds' superstar shortstop has begun the season in a way no shortstop ever has dating back to 1900 (when most data like this first becomes available).
The feat: Elly has five home runs and five stolen bases through the Reds' first 16 games of the season.
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Elly has begun the season hitting .281 with those five home runs along with three doubles. He's 5-for-6 stealing bases.
He has also scored 13 runs and driven in 10 runs. His OPS is .924, which would be by far a career-high (previous .809). He's been 50% better than a league average hitter, according to OPS+.
De La Cruz hasn't cut down on his strikeout rate, which is always a pretty high one, but he's making the most of his contact and of his time on base.
When you consider that 16 games is about one-tenth of the season, you can extrapolate and say that De La Cruz is on pace for a 50/50 season -- of which only Shohei Ohtani has ever had one.
Obviously, it would be quite the feat for De La Cruz to keep this up the whole season. But he's already off to a start never done before by a shortstop. Why stop now?
Elly De La Cruz became the first shortstop since 1900 to hit five home runs and steal five bases in the first 16 games of a season.
As of now, Elly De La Cruz has five home runs and five stolen bases in the current season.
Elly De La Cruz's historic achievement occurred during the first 16 games of the 2023 MLB season.
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