GOODYEAR, Ariz. — TJ Friedl may be the Cincinnati Reds’ leadoff man, but the team’s daily lineup starts with Elly De La Cruz.
When manager Terry Francona and his staff start pencilling in their lineup for the next day’s game, De La Cruz’s name is likely written down first, with every other spot revolving around the team’s 24-year-old shortstop.
“He likes hitting third,” Francona said Friday. “There’s just a lot of reasons I think it works.”
Even though De La Cruz is a switch hitter, so far in his career, he’s had better results from the left side than the right. Opposing managers often look to get left-handed pitchers in against De La Cruz. With the left-handed Friedl as the team’s primary lead-off man, putting those two back-to-back would be a gift for the opposing manager.
“I want to try to help our guys, not make it harder,” Francona said. “You line up guys sometimes — and there’s something to be said for lining your best guys up early — I get it. But if you line it up where the lefties can come in and they’re going to beat them up, that’s not helping.”
Over the last decade or so, batting the best player second has become much more common — it’s to get them more plate appearances in a game.
If the Reds’ leadoff man was a right-handed hitter, Francona said, it’d be a different story and he’d give more thought to De La Cruz batting second. However, Friedl is the Reds’ leadoff man and he started 150 of the 162 regular-season games in the lineup’s top spot.
Last season, Francona used 145 different batting orders in the regular season. Francona, like most managers, would prefer a consistent lineup, but injuries and inconsistency made it difficult in his first year with the Reds.
The duo of Friedl and De La Cruz were both in the lineup batting first and third, respectively, in 146 of 162 regular-season games. Only once — Sept. 17 at St. Louis in the 152nd game of the season — did Francona use a lineup without Friedl batting first and De La Cruz third.
A total of seven different players hit second in the Reds’ lineup last season, with second baseman Matt McLain leading the way with 66. Austin Hays, who signed as a free agent with the Chicago White Sox this offseason, started 82 games in the cleanup spot.
Hays signed his deal with the White Sox the day before the Reds came to an agreement with their new cleanup man, Eugenio Suárez. Suárez hit 49 home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners last season. No Reds player has hit more than 25 home runs in a season since 2021, when Joey Votto (36), Nick Castellanos (34) and Suárez (31) all topped that mark.
Last year, the Reds had 22 home runs from their cleanup spot, the same number of home runs De La Cruz hit to lead the team.
“We mixed and matched so much last year, trying to get whoever was hot (at the top of the lineup),” Francona said. “Because we were young, we put guys in a tough spot. Normally when we move them there, they start to be a focal point and they would struggle a little bit.”
If healthy, there will be no mixing or matching in the cleanup spot for Francona; it’ll simply be Suárez’s spot. Although Suárez can be streaky at the plate, his resume speaks loudly enough that no pitcher is going to want to face him — especially if he has to contend with De La Cruz on the bases. If Suárez is in a cold spurt, he still knows he’ll be hitting cleanup most days regardless.
“Nobody’s rooting for a guy to get cold, but when he does… he’s not going to come out of (the lineup),” Francona said. “He’s not going to worry about getting sent to Triple A or that he can’t do it. There is something to be said for that.”
McLain started last season in the two hole, but as the season progressed, he continued to struggle. McLain finished the year hitting .220/.300/.343, well down from his rookie year when he hit .290/.357/.507 and finished fifth in National League Rookie of the Year voting, two spots ahead of De La Cruz.
His trajectory was stopped in its tracks when he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in spring training. Even after his struggles last season, the Reds are bullish on McLain’s status as a game-changer.
“I still think in a perfect world, if McLain is who is McLain is, he’s the perfect guy,” Francona said. “He didn’t swing it like he could. Hopefully he will.”
Santiago Espinal started 30 games in that spot and Noelvi Marte notched 29. Spencer Steer started 11 games in the No. 2 spot and 12 at No. 4. Tyler Stephenson’s 13 starts at cleanup last year were the most by any Reds player who is also on this year’s roster.
Although Marte seems like a good fit to hit second, if the idea is to keep an opposing manager from bringing in a lefty to face Friedl and De La Cruz, Marte doesn’t accomplish that. Marte had an .821 OPS against right-handed pitchers and had just a .562 OPS against lefties. McLain’s OPS was .679 against left-handers and .632 against righties.
The Reds have no shortage of right-handed bats, so Steer (.727 OPS vs. LHP and .721 vs. RHP in 2025) is an option, as is catcher Tyler Stephenson (.821 OPS vs. LHP and .714 OPS vs RHP). A new season, though, creates new opportunities.
“Those things can change, too,” Francona said. “Guys, they figure s— out. They make adjustments. But that’s something I’ve had to think about.”
Of all the things Francona has to think about, where he’s putting De La Cruz in the lineup is pretty far down the list.