Cincinnati Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall joined the Reds Hot Stove Show Wednesday evening and revealed a few items pertaining to two-time All-Star Shortstop Elly De La Cruz.Beginning defensively, the club is not considering moving the 23-year-old from shortstop to the outfield, or any other position for that matter, according to Krall.Krall pinned most of De La Cruz’s struggles from late July through the Reds exit in the National League Wild Card series on an injury that was not discussed publicly until now.”If you look at his year (in 2025), and I think a lot of people don’t know this, towards the end of July he was dealing with a partial torn quad,” Krall said. “He has been rehabbing (this offseason). He was at the ballpark today. To his credit, he played every day. He tried to grind through it. He tried to play through it. If you look at his defensive numbers, he made 12 errors towards the end of July when he got hurt and then he made 14 from the end of July on.””He wasn’t able to do it (play with injury) as successful as possible. He had a stretch of games where he hit 19 homers and then he did not hit one until some point in September. That is going to affect him. That is going to affect everything he does. But, to his credit, he was trying to play every single day through it.”De La Cruz finished the 2025 season hitting .264 with 25 home runs and a .777 OPS, numbers that were dragged down by a .236 average and only four home runs after the All-Star break.”You look at where he was, up until that point where he got hurt, and he definitely was better defensively (before). It’s just he didn’t finish the way he started.”

CINCINNATI —

Cincinnati Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall joined the Reds Hot Stove Show Wednesday evening and revealed a few items pertaining to two-time All-Star Shortstop Elly De La Cruz.

Beginning defensively, the club is not considering moving the 23-year-old from shortstop to the outfield, or any other position for that matter, according to Krall.

Krall pinned most of De La Cruz’s struggles from late July through the Reds exit in the National League Wild Card series on an injury that was not discussed publicly until now.

“If you look at his year (in 2025), and I think a lot of people don’t know this, towards the end of July he was dealing with a partial torn quad,” Krall said. “He has been rehabbing (this offseason). He was at the ballpark today. To his credit, he played every day. He tried to grind through it. He tried to play through it. If you look at his defensive numbers, he made 12 errors towards the end of July when he got hurt and then he made 14 from the end of July on.”

“He wasn’t able to do it (play with injury) as successful as possible. He had a stretch of games where he hit 19 homers and then he did not hit one until some point in September. That is going to affect him. That is going to affect everything he does. But, to his credit, he was trying to play every single day through it.”

De La Cruz finished the 2025 season hitting .264 with 25 home runs and a .777 OPS, numbers that were dragged down by a .236 average and only four home runs after the All-Star break.

“You look at where he was, up until that point where he got hurt, and he definitely was better defensively (before). It’s just he didn’t finish the way he started.”