The inside story of how the Reds found Elly De La Cruz
There is no team hotter in baseball than the Reds, who also just happen to possess perhaps the game's most talked about player: Elly De La Cruz.
In first-place Cincinnati's 10th straight win, the rookie infielder launched a home run as one of his three hits to increase his batting average to .308 with an .898 OPS. Since the promotion of De La Cruz - who also owns the game's fastest sprint speed - the Reds are 11-2.
Coincidence? Probably not.
But it wasn't all that long ago that De La Cruz was actually worried about being cut by the Reds. That was a revelation surfaced by Richard Jimenez, the scout who spearheaded Cincy's discovery and signing of what was then a 130-pound 16-year-old from the Dominican Republic.
Jimenez explained the evolution while appearing on the 'Baseball Isn't Boring' podcast ...
Jimenez, who now works for the Dodgers, also explains on the podcast how the Reds came to sign De La Cruz for the somewhat modest signing bonus of $65,000, and what he thought was so special about the aspiring major leaguer.