- The Cincinnati Reds called up 21-year-old phenom Elly De La Cruz earlier this week.
- He's off to a ridiculously hot start.
Baseball's 2023 renaissance continued this week when the Cincinnati Reds called up 21-year-old phenom Elly De La Cruz from the minor leagues.
De La Cruz is widely regarded as one of the top prospects in baseball.
Two games into his career, he looks like a total star.
What stands out about him is relatively simple: He's a giant man (height: 6'5") who absolutely crushes baseballs.
On Wednesday night, he hit a 458-foot home run that nearly left the entire stadium.
Look at this thing:
So close to landing on the highway:
This dinger had an exit velocity of 114.8 MPH, making it the hardest hit ball from a Reds player in four years, accordingly to Baseball America's J.J. Cooper.
This came a day after his MLB debut, where he had the game's two hardest-hit balls (via MLB Statcast):
Two games into his career, he's 3-for-7 with two walks, a double, a triple, and a home run.
He has put four balls in play so far. Here's where they ended up:
The haters will say a sample size of two games is extremely tiny and we should all pump the brakes. But there's a lot to be excited about here: cool name, charisma, crushes nearly every baseball he sees. All aboard the hype train.