CONTROVERSY: Elly De La Cruz’s Defensive Struggles EXPOSED | Cincinnati Reds HESITANT about a Change

CONTROVERSY: Elly De La Cruz’s Defensive Struggles EXPOSED | Cincinnati Reds HESITANT about a Change

It’s time for Ellie de la Cruz to do what’s not best for him, but what’s best for the Reds. And what’s best for the Reds is Ellie not playing shortstop. [Music] You are Locked on Reds. Your daily Cincinnati Reds podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Reds podcast. My name is Jeff Carr. His name is Steve Offenbaker. And we are lifelong Cincinnati Reds fans. We’re glad that you’re alongside us here on Lockdown Reds that is part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Something that Steve and myself have been doing for a combined 14 seasons, by the way, talking about these Reds. And we’re glad that you’re here today because on today’s show, we are going to really dissect the uh the the answer that Nick Crawl gave as to whether or not Ellie Dela Cruz could be moved. We’re going to look at, you know, why it’s not what’s best for the team that he stays at shortstop. We’re going to ascertain what the roster would look like if he were to move. And then later on, we’ll tell you who replaces him if the Reds were to move him off of the shortstop position. That’s all coming up on today’s Lockdown Reds podcast. That is brought to you by FanDuel. New users can download it today and place their first $5 wager. And if it wins, they get $300 in bonus bets. Download FanDuel today. All right, Steve. Last week, Nick Crawl spoke with the media and there were questions plenty about different things and we’re going to cover a lot of those this week, but one of the first ones that we’re diving into and it’s something that I talked about solo last week a little bit, but I know that you have some strong feelings about this is because it was such a finite answer is that Nick Crawl was asked if any consideration was given to moving Ellie Dela Cruz off of shortstop and he literally said no. And that’s the wrong answer. And whether you frame this question of did you consider moving him during the 2025 season or are you considering moving him for the 2026 season, the answer no is wrong in both cases. Look, I’m a big fan of Ellie de Cruz. I think Ellie is electric. I think Ellie still has the potential to be one of the most exciting players in the game for years to come. But the simple fact of the matter is we have a sample size large enough now to say definitively he’s just not that great a shortstop. He has led the majors in errors, Jeff, for both of his full seasons at shortstop. And I want to take it a step further than that because if you look at his first season when they called him up, he split time between shortstop and between third base. Now in third base at third base in 32 games he committed exactly one error at third base. At shortstop that season twice as many games he was in 69 games he committed 13 errors that partial season. If you extrapolate that out to have if he had played that full season at shortstop his first year, he’d have led the majors in errors. Again, if you just project his numbers out, because that season, the 2023 season, Trey Turner of the Philadelphia Phillies and CJ Abrams of the Nationals tied for the lead in errors in Major League Baseball that year with 22. If Ellie had played a full season at shortstop, he would have surpassed that. He’s just not good. He’s he’s laxidasical. He showboats when he doesn’t have to. He lets plays get away from him. He doesn’t field the ball correctly. He has not corrected it. He has not put in the effort to be better defensively. And it’s time to move him. He should not be the shorts stop for this team. He wants to be the shortstop for this team, Jeff. But that doesn’t mean that he should be. Just like he wanted to play 162 games and they let him and they shouldn’t have and it had detrimental impacts to the team. keeping him at shortstop has detrimental impacts to the team and it’s time to tell Ellie you’re not in charge here. You’re gonna play someplace else. I I I want to lose 50 pounds but they keep making this this stuff called food that’s really really good. Um I hate that stat though, dude. Like I hate errors. I really do. It is a subjective stat that the official scorer decides whether or not a guy should have made a better play. Now, there are plays that he absolutely should make, but he gets dinged more often than not because he is actually there. Nick Castanos, for instance, last year was like the fewest errors of any qualified right fielder. And I don’t think either of us would sit here and say that Nick Castanos is a good defensive right fielder. So, errors is such a weird stat. I’m going to do something though and and and actually support your point with something because in his career at shortstop for his three seasons so far in according to fan graphs, 3,364 innings, it’s a pretty good sample size. Uh he has -12 defensive runs saved at at shortstop, which isn’t horrible. It could be a lot worse, but it’s certainly not good. And I think that’s the hard part here is that we’re looking for the position where he makes the most difference in a positive manner. And as much as we see these plays where he ranges over into foul territory, makes some sort of sliding grab or or maybe he like jumps and catches a ball that very few people will actually catch because he’s the tallest shortstop in the league. I just don’t know that everything else uh that it outweighs everything else because we know those those ground balls that go right to him that it looks like he should be able to pick up and flick the first. He ends up flicking into the third row of the stands or trying to field it on his hip and the ball gets just away from him, which is the thing that he does that drives me the most crazy because from the time kids are five years old, you teach them how to field a ground ball and it’s not that way. And and I think that’s the hard part too is that it’s like I don’t think he’s laxidas. I know that that’s a point you’ve made. I know it’s a point a lot of people have made. I think he has an ego about him that he’s just like I know I’m going to make this play. So whatever I do, it’s going to turn into an out. And I don’t think that’s lack of days. That’s just ego. That’s just not giving the proper respect to the play. And I think that Terry Franone is the guy to instill that to him. So, why would you not give him one more season to figure that out? Because there’s much more that you could do with him, and we’re going to get into that coming up here in a little bit. Ellie at shortstop prevents the Cincinnati Reds from fielding the best version of themselves. Ellie at shortstop really, in my opinion, because this is because Ellie wants to be the shortstop. In my opinion, that’s selfish. That is a selfish decision being made for the player and the player only that is going to have wide ranging detrimental impacts to this team as far as what it can do with defensive alignments and getting the best bats in the order each and every day. Elliot shortstop creates problems and moving Ellie is a solution. And while where I initially thought early in his uh career when we first started talking about this, I thought the answer to that question was third base. He looked good over there in the 32 games that he played in 2023. Again, one error only during those games where he was playing at third base. He’s built big like a third baseman. He fields the hot corner well, but the Reds went out and got Key Brian Hayes. So, that changes the thought process a little bit. And now it’s an even bigger ask. And I understand that we’re going to a player that wants to be the shortstop and going to have to ask him to move someplace else. And it becomes a bigger ask because now with the trade for Kean Hayes, you not only have to ask Ellie to move off of his spot on the infield, I think you have to ask him to move off of the infield. And we’ve batted this around. People have been talking about it. And coming up next, we’re going to talk about what it would mean for the Cincinnati Reds if Ellie de la Cruz becomes outfielder Ellie de la Cruz. There’s a great offer over on FanDuel right now to get started and that is if you place a $5 wager and it wins, you get $300 in bonus bets if that’s your first winning $5 wager on FanDuel. There’s so much going on right now, whether it’s football, you’ve got the NFL and college football, of course, Bearcats are doing well, and the Bengals are playing, too. 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Jeff and I are going to be with you all off seasonason long talking about what the Reds did in 2025, talking about the team needs, talking about the free agent market that’s out there, talking about the offseason and getting you set for 2026. We’re going to be with you every single step of the way. So, make sure you are subscribed. All right, Jeeoff, I know I hit that break just a scoch early because I wanted to leave a little bit more time to talk about what happens next. And that is if you move Ellie de la Cruz, which I think uh I to center field to squarely in agreement of moving him, you have to move him to the outfield. Yes. Now, you were early an early rior to Ellie to center field and I’ve seen the Ellie to the outfield comments kind of gaining more and more traction. I’ve seen people talking about Ellie as a corner outfielder, as a left fielder or right fielder and and I’ve given some thought to that. And you know, his arm in left or his arm in right would be amazing. I mean, he you can count on him gunning guys down at the plate. Here’s here’s where I have a little apprehension because I question Ellie’s ability to be called off of a ball by TJ Fredel. I just I I really question that Ellie’s going to be like, “Oh, okay.” Well, he already doesn’t he already doesn’t do does it, right? So, you know, the the center fielder is the the version of the outfield shorts stop, right? The shorts stop kind of runs things on the infield. The center fielder runs things in the outfield. And I think it’s just a a more comfortable, natural move if you’re going to move Ellie off of this infield. You put him in center field, you get Noelvie Marte in right, which that’s good because Ellie in center picks up that right center field gap that sometimes Noelvie makes me wonder if he’s going to get to and you’re not quite sure and and he often times does get there, but it’s stressful watching him try to run over there. So Ellie eats up some of that territory that helps the Reds defensively. And then you go out and you get a power hitting left fielder, right-handed outfield bat that we have been begging for for years. And now this outfield looks completely different than it did in 2025. Now many people are probably what are you doing with TJ Fredel? I don’t know what I’m doing with TJ Fredel. Does your does your powerhitting left fielder need a platoon partner? Maybe you go that route. Do do you use TJ Fedel as your fourth outfielder? He’d be a pretty good fourth outfielder on this team. Um there’s a role for TJ Fredel, but I think the best use of Ellie de la Cruz is to pull him off of the infield, put him in that center field spot, and let him go make amazing plays. It’s, you know, Fernando Tatis in the outfield has been great. Uh I think Ellie de la Cruz in the outfield would look great. It just it seems like a no-brainer to me that they could maximize Ellie’s production. they could still, you know, have him be a superstar as a center fielder for this team, covering lots and lots of territory, making beautiful defensive plays and helping this Red’s team win. I think the biggest thing, by the way, welcome. Glad to have you on on board uh when it comes to moving Ellie to center field. Oh boy. I think the biggest thing that he would need to learn because everybody’s worried about this part, right? Everybody’s worried about, oh, he’s going to move to center field and he’s going to run straight into the wall and he’s going to break in half or something. like everybody keeps talking about that. I think that is the biggest thing that he just needs to learn is the limits of the outfield and and how to maneuver around there because guys learn that. I mean, that’s what the warning track is for. It’s not just out there because they really like dirt. Like, it’s out there so that guys know whenever they’re tracking a fly ball, hey, grass, dirt, I should probably slow down or stop or whatever because I think that he’s really good at tracking a fly ball. Like think about how many different plays he’s made on pot flies into no man’s land there in left field that he’s able to range back and catch. I don’t think he has to work that hard to figure out, you know, just the the area around him in center field and how to track a fly ball and get into the right spot. I don’t think he would have to do a whole lot of work to get his body in position to make a really great throw, like if he’s going to catch a ball and throw a guy out at the plate. And then you’re right, you put the best arm that is not on a mound in center field and you’re going to improve the outfield defensiveness for the Reds immeasurably. And because of that, that also sets you up on the infield because you move some guys around. We’ll talk about who replaces him at shortstop, but because you could potentially move Matt Mlan, then you open up second base. you open up first base and you don’t have to worry about if Spencer Steer has to play a lot of left field. Well, and and and that’s the thing, right? It immediately makes the outfield conversation surrounding the Cincinnati Reds just so much better. Now, you’re also right. I mean, the big the big fear is Ellie crashing into the walls. I don’t believe for a second that Ellie is going to not play center field like King Griffy Jr. played center field. Um he’s gonna he’s going to go get those balls. He’s gonna run into the wall. But here’s the thing. Ellie, I think, is probably a little bit more durable. I think his body can handle his body can handle some crashing into the wall. Let’s not run into the brick at Wriggley. Let’s not run into, you know, the the corner. Where where was the place where the guy hit his eye on a corner and somewhere in the outfield recently? Oh, uh, cut his face open. Yeah. In Miami. So, you know, Will Will Benson. Yeah. Yeah. take take into account where you’re playing. But I I really think Ellie could be great out there. And I I have changed my tune, Jeff. I I believe that if the Reds are going to maximize what they’re going to get out of out of Ellie de la Cruz while he’s still here, this is the next part of the evolution. This is the next thing you do. You get him into the outfield. You get him into a structured situation where he has some days off. He’s rested throughout the season. He’s playing center field. He’s the the general in the outfield. And it’s, I think, going to be part of what pushes Ellie into an MVP conversation. I think Ellie de la Cruz can be an MVP playing center field for the Cincinnati Reds in the very near future. I mean, that’s what Fernandin Tatis is doing. And and they gave him even less time at shortstop before they moved him into the outfield. He only played 2,000 innings at shortstop before they decided to move him. And after he was moved to the outfield, so he played part-time in 2021, so not full-time, but after he was moved full-time in 2023 to the outfield. Listen to this, Steve. Fernando Tatis in 2023, 27 defensive runs saved in the outfield in 2023. Now, he was hurt and he dealt with some injuries and things like that in 2024. 2025 comes back, 15 outs above or defensive run saved this year. in right field. And in fact, there’s a lot of folks in, you know, friend of the podcast, Carlos Guvara, who believe that he is the platinum glove winner without a doubt. He beats out anybody else, including Grian Hayes, because of how good he is in right field. Now, I’m not saying that immediately that’s what we’re going to see from Ellie Dela Cruz, but he’s got that. He could absolutely be that. He could absolutely. I just don’t know if he’s got that potential in shortstop. I just don’t know. But I think he’s got that potential in No, I mean, I’ve seen enough. Is Is it Is it unreasonable to say we’ve seen enough? I I mean, 158 games in 2025, 26 errors. 160 games. In 2024, 29 errors. And I know I I get what you’re trying to say about the errors being subjective. And, you know, sometimes it’s an error, sometimes it’s not. Scores can be biased. Whatever. It’s still a lot of of throws that were questionable. That’s a lot of questionable plays for it to have been considered to be an error. So even if an official scorer got a couple of them wrong, they didn’t get 20 of them wrong, Jeff. They didn’t get 25 of them wrong. Like this is this is a significant amount of errors over a significant amount of playing time. I just I don’t It tells me everything I need to know. It’s right there, right there, highlighted and atalicized on baseball reference because it’s it’s leading the league. Not just leading the division, not just it’s leading baseball. He’s the worst fielding defensive player in baseball at shortstop. Get him to the outfit. Well, and also there’s a statistic that I talked about that I like a lot more than errors um last week whenever I mention Nick Crawl’s comments and saying no, there’s been no consideration to moving him. And it’s it’s this stat that Fan Graphs has that’s simply called defense. And it takes like fielding runs saved and it adds in a positional thing so that you can compare it to every position. It’s not just within a singular position, but you can compare Ellie to key Brian Hayes to Josephinho to all these different guys. Last year, his defensive value was 2.7. That is a huge drop from where it was in 2024. And so if we really felt good about keeping him at shortstop, it would have had to have at least been stagnant, if not gotten better. But instead, it went backwards and instead he took steps back. And that’s where this whole idea of moving him, I think, makes total sense. And then when you move him, you open up the fact that South Stewart can play every day at first base. You open up the fact that Spencer Steer can play his favorite position in second base. And you open up the possibility of who’s going to be playing shortstop for you if Ellie de la Cruz isn’t Matt Mcclelay. Most people can’t name all of their financial accounts or even what they’re worth. Whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments, people just don’t know what they have. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there is Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easytouse interface on your laptop or on your phone. Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you so that you don’t have to. You can link all of your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. Jeff and I both hate spreadsheets. Uh Monarch makes it easy to see where you’re spending your money, where your finances are going. It’s very easy to just tap that credit card, right? You want it, you buy it, you tap. You don’t even really know what you spent. Monarch brings the picture together clearly so you know what is going on with your finances. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code locked on mob at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with the code locked on MLB. If you can’t watch us on YouTube, you can always listen to us on your favorite podcast app. We’re on all of them out there. Go check us out there today. And when you’re done with today’s episode, make sure you check out Locked on MLB. Sully’s got you covered with views around the league. And Lockdown MLB game night is covering every game, every night all through the World Series. Check out the locked on MLB feed today. All right, Steve. So, if it ain’t Ellie at shortstop, at least right now, it would be Matt Mlan. And and I look at that because of how he played there in 2023. He was a positive value there in 2023. He had, you know, positive defensive run saved, positive outs above average. And there there was a a feeling that the baseline is much higher than uh the the floor of his performance as a defensive shortstop is actually higher than LA de la Cruz. You can make an argument that the ceiling is lower, but the floor is much higher. 2023 53 games, one error, one Matt Mlan’s a better shorts stop than Ellie de la Cruz. Matt Mlan’s always been a better short stop than Ellie de la Cruz and the Reds knew it when they called up Ellie de la Cruz and that’s why Ellie played third base. Somewhere along the way, we let Ellie decide. That’s the problem. Matt Mlan told me to my face when I asked him, “What position do you play?” He told me, “Short stop.” So there you go. I don’t think he let you finish the question. He did not. He was saying it before I finished the question. So yeah, um Matt Mlan knows where he belongs. And now I I listen, there’s keyboard smoking right now in the comment section. Guys, I know Matt Mlan had a bad year and we need him to rebound, but he’s going to be on this Red’s team and he’s going to be in this Red’s lineup, so let’s take advantage of the defense. You put him at shortstop. And as Jeff said in the tease heading into this segment, it frees up so many more things with Ellie in the outfield and the outfield being stable and and they do have to go get a guy, but I do believe they are finally going to go get a guy. The outfield becomes stable. Spencer Steer, left fielder, haha, doesn’t have to happen anymore. Spencer Steer gets to now be on the infield at the position he says he plays the best, which is second base. So now up the middle, you’ve got a guy at second base that loves playing there and is really, really good there. And you’ve got a shorts stop that loves playing there, that’s really, really good there, and is not going to lead the league in errors. You’ve got good defense up the middle. And if a ball does sneak through, guess who’s behind them with a cannon of an arm? It’s Ellie de la Cruz. The defense up the middle would be stellar. Now you’ve got Krian Hayes at third base. Did I just say stellar defense? Platinum glove defense. Now, there is not a lot that’s going to get through that infield. So, where does South Stewart play? Well, now you get to put South Stewart at first base or CES, you know, the the ghost of CES returns and takes back that position or a lot of options for first base now. But I think Sal Stewart probably has, I guess, the edge there, Jeff, in in being that first if they don’t make a move. So, so now you’re infield, tremendous defense with some bats in the lineup that we hope get things done, a stable outfield with tremendous defense and hopefully the added power and left that we’re asking the Reds to go get. This is suddenly a very different lineup for 2026. This is suddenly a much much better defensive team in 2026. And you don’t necessarily have to pick between are we going to prevent runs or are we going to score runs. This is the lineup that can score a lot of runs and prevent runs at the same time, which is really what was missing in 2025. I think this is the optimal arrangement. Jeff, I would love to see this. I I would argue like out outside of the Reds making a signing that we just don’t see them doing, like a Kyle Schwarber or something like that. I think this could be the best move that they can make this off season is moving Ellie Dela Cruz to shortstop. And I think that that’s because you open up these opportunities. You could even for a moment you could consider this. You could bring back Miguel Andrew. You could platoon him and TJ Fredel in left field. Yep. And then you could have South Stewart at first base or CES at first base. And you could also platoon um you could platoon Andahar at first base or whatever because Andahar played a little bit of first base as well. But there’s different options that you have here and and this opens up the idea of getting Stewart in the lineup every day, which I want to see. And it feels like as the team is currently constructed with Ellie de la Cruz a short, then you have this weird, is Spencer Steer going to play left field because South Stewart’s going to play first base? Is South Stewart going to play third base and we’re going to get rid of Ke Brian Hayes? Like, you don’t have to do any of that. If you move Ellie to if you move Ellie off of shortstop into the outfield, I I I agree. It just the thing that confounds me the most in all of this, Jeff, is, you know, we’re not we’re not squinting real hard here to see this. This this is pretty plain on paper. It makes sense. So, the real confounding thing for me is just how quickly Nick Crawl dismissed this. Just how quickly he leaned into the no, no, no, no, no, absolutely not. And I really think that’s about not pissing Ellie de la Cruz off. And you cannot run a professional baseball team that way. You cannot be worried you’re going to make Ellie mad. It’s It’s not like if you move him, he’s suddenly not going to be willing to sign here uh when his contract’s up. News flash, he’s never going to sign here. It doesn’t matter. So, do what’s best for the franchise and and and and to Ellie, do what’s best for the franchise, and that’s moving to the outfield. Um I’m really bothered by how quickly Nick Crawl dismissed this. It’s odd because he doesn’t usually do that. Like even and we’ll talk about this on tomorrow’s show. Even when he was asked about, you know, the possibility of trading Hunter Green or other starting pitchers, he did not say no. Of course, we’re not thinking about that. He said it’s, you know, it’s not conversations that we’ve had with other teams. So, he he does this thing where he gives you a general answer. He holds things close to the vest. In case something changes, he leaves that door open. He slammed the door so hard on this that it makes me wonder if he brought it up and Terry Francona shot it down or if or if Ellie shot it down because or or if Terry Francona shot it down because of Ellie. Whatever the situation is, I think that there is a point here where Nick Crawl knows things aren’t going to change. So, that all being said, I think that this is the best version of the team moving him to center field. I think we’re we’re looking at opening day with Elliot de la Cruz a shortstop. And for me, the question that follows that one is how long will they do that? Is that a in perpetuity he plays shortstop period, we don’t care what else happens, or are they going to evaluate that honestly? Because it feels like right now they have a lot to evaluate honestly as is. They don’t need more information. But it seems like if the answer wasn’t no to the question of are they considering moving de la Cruz, the next answer after no would be well, you know, we’re going to evaluate this. It’s like there’s a lot to evaluate already. I wish I wish somebody had just hit Nick Crawl with an immediate followup of, well, why not? The all of the all of the numbers say this would be better for the Reds. What are you looking at that says it’s better for the Reds to keep him at shortstop? What is the thing that makes this team better by keeping him at shortstop? I don’t know that there is even a a squinty answer to that question, Jeff. Like, can you play devil’s advocate? Can you come up with some reason that it’s better for the Reds to have Elliot shortstop because I cannot I I can’t think of one reason that’s team related, one reason that’s Cincinnati Reds related that it’s better for this ball club to have Elliot shortstop than in center field. Well, and I I I think this is intriguing because like, you know, after he said no, they were talking a little bit about it and he mentioned this when it comes to LA Cruz, Nick Crawl said, um, you know, he got tired toward the middle of the season. Quote, it caught up with him. We talked about what’s the best way to deploy him moving forward on a daily basis. So, I think that I think that they’re okay with everything that’s going on right now. They’re just going to make sure that they monitor his his workload more. Well, I unhappy with it. Maybe that is their reasoning. Maybe that is what they’re talking about. Like they’re just like, “Okay, the reasoning that we’re not moving him is because we think that he played too much because we let him play too much.” Which also goes back to the whole thing of like they’re asking him. So, this is going to be a fun one to watch. I think this topic is going to continue to resurface throughout the offseason, especially as we get more into like the free agent signing period. Um, and and what the Reds can and cannot do. It’s going to be very interesting to watch, very interesting to follow, and you can bet that we’re going to keep you in the loop every step of the way. That is going to do it for this edition of Locked on Reds. Thanks as always for making Locked on Reds your first listen each and every day. Now, go check out the Locked On MLB feed. Two great shows, not one, but two great shows over in that feed. You get Paul Francis Sullivan. You can call in Sully giving you a national perspective of what’s going on in Major League Baseball. And you get MLB game night all the way through the World Series watching every single game so that you don’t have to. Plus, you’re going to get the experts of the entire Locked on Network Major League Baseball channel. So check that out today. We’re going to keep gathering up the news, the notes, the reports, the rumors, and the information and bringing them right back here to keep you locked on Reds every single day. I guess I am off of Ellie’s Christmas card list now. Probably. Actually, I heard he was working on that, so maybe he didn’t see this yet. Yeah, I’m in trouble.

The Cincinnati Reds face a pivotal decision: Should Elly De La Cruz move from shortstop to center field? Jeff Carr and Steve Offenbaker dissect De La Cruz’s defensive struggles, starting with his league-leading error counts in 2024 and 2025 and expanding to the bigger picture of mediocrity. They explore the potential benefits of shifting him to center field, drawing parallels to Fernando Tatis Jr.’s successful outfield transition. The hosts analyze roster implications, discussing how this move could impact Matt McLain, Spencer Steer, and Sal Stewart’s positions. They also critique General Manager Nick Krall’s dismissal of the idea, emphasizing the need to prioritize team success. Get the full scoop on this game-changing proposal for the Cincinnati Reds – listen now!

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0:00 Intro: Cincinnati Reds podcast Locked on Reds

0:31 Nick Krall’s comments on Elly De La Cruz

2:01 Elly De La Cruz’s defensive struggles at shortstop

4:19 Analyzing Elly De La Cruz’s defensive metrics

6:52 Benefits of moving Elly De La Cruz to outfield

12:55 Teaching Elly De La Cruz outfield positioning skills

16:17 Fernando Tatis Jr.’s success after position change

21:19 Matt McLain as potential shortstop replacement

25:02 Roster flexibility with Elly De La Cruz in outfield

28:53 Nick Krall’s reluctance to move Elly De La Cruz

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