So I had this good concept. My good concept was that Elly De La Cruz wasn’t as dangerous a defender because the numbers would have us assume. De La Cruz completed the 2025 season with 11 fielding errors, the second most in baseball, and 15 throwing errors, additionally the second most in baseball. Put these two collectively and also you get 26 whole errors, probably the most in baseball. I believed these totals may be shortchanging De La Cruz a bit. My good concept was improper, however earlier than I get to why, let me clarify my pondering.
We should always begin with the very fact the superior numbers don’t say that De La Cruz is a nasty shortstop. He makes up for many of his errors with size, pace, and the Mega Man cannon the place his proper arm must be. Statcast’s FRV beloved De La Cruz’s protection in 2024, and it pegged him as completely common as he battled by way of a quad pressure in 2025. Baseball Prospectus’ DRP, which tends to skew extra conservative than the opposite superior metrics, had him at 0.8 runs in 2024 and -0.4 runs in 2025. Sports activities Information Options’ DRS has at all times preferred De La Cruz’s protection the least, pegging him at -2 in 2024 and -5 in 2025. So it’s not as if De La Cruz is grading out as a disaster. I simply thought he deserved much more credit score, and with that credit score, we would have began seeing him as an above-average shortstop somewhat than a good-enough shortstop.
My speculation was primarily based totally on highlights. I’ve seen De La Cruz do loads of superb issues within the discipline. I’ve additionally seen him make loads of errors, however the errors tended to have one thing in widespread. See for those who can spot it within the clips beneath:
You see what I’m getting at, proper? These throws don’t look that dangerous. De La Cruz throws the ball so laborious that first basemen don’t have sufficient time to react. They’re getting handcuffed over and over. None of those throws is ideal, however they’re not all that far astray both. Six of the seven hit leather-based. Have been they thrown by a shortstop with a lesser arm, at one thing a bit additional beneath the pace of sunshine, the primary baseman may need picked them cleanly. As a substitute, they went uncaught. De La Cruz is getting dinged for errors on balls that aren’t all that far astray, and possibly that’s a little bit bit unfair.
I don’t imply to say that none of those errors was De La Cruz’s fault in any respect. The purpose isn’t to be within the ballpark; the purpose is to report the out. For those who’ve received an arm that sturdy, you’ve received to know your margin for error is smaller and also you’ve received know what makes a throw catchable. Nonetheless, when the shortstop throws a ball to the primary baseman, the blame for an error ought to exist on one thing of a spectrum, shouldn’t it? Right here’s a thought experiment to point out what I imply.
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Say I throw a superbly positioned ball proper on the first baseman’s chest at 85 mph and it pops out of their glove. That’s 100% on the primary baseman, proper? That’s an simply catchable ball. What about if the identical actual factor occurs on a throw that’s 100 mph? My throw was nonetheless excellent, however the first baseman’s response time is loads shorter. Perhaps we shouldn’t count on them to catch it each single time, so if the blame is just 90% theirs, then I suppose the remaining 10% has to go to me, as a result of the place else wouldn’t it go? What if I throw the ball 105 mph? What if I throw it 400 mph and it blows a gap straight by way of the primary baseman’s chest like a cartoon? Will we chisel a giant E3 onto their tombstone?
In order that was my pondering. A mean shortstop throws a sure share of balls within the dust, and a mean first baseman scoops them a sure share of the time. I can’t say for sure whether or not De La Cruz throws extra balls within the dust or will get fewer scoops than the typical shortstop. So as to take action, I’d have to observe 1000’s of throws and take meticulous notes, and whereas readers of this web site know that’s completely the type of factor that I’d usually do, it’s not how I wished to spend Thanksgiving.
What I can say for certain is that De La Cruz was charged with a suspiciously excessive variety of errors on balls that seemed pickable (not less than for those who didn’t know the way laborious they had been thrown). Proper now, De La Cruz’s god-like arm giveth and it taketh away, however we must always not less than be noting that his throwing errors tended, not less than in a single sense, to be of the hard-luck selection. With a view to take full benefit of De La Cruz’s items, the Reds simply want to ensure they get an excellent defender at first base, one who majored in scoops. Such a primary baseman might simply make De La Cruz’s rocket arm much more of an asset.
I’ll now ask you to recall that again within the first paragraph, I mentioned that my concept was improper. I’ll not have watched each shortstop throw from the 2025 season, however I did sit down and watch all of De La Cruz’s throwing errors from the previous two years. That video I confirmed you contained seven performs, and they’re the one seven situations I might discover of this problem. Now, that’s nonetheless loads. Over the previous two seasons, 91 completely different gamers have spent not less than 100 innings at shortstop, and solely 21 of them have made greater than seven whole throwing errors. Nonetheless, it’s not sufficient to vary the way in which De La Cruz grades out as a fielder. Had all seven of these throws been caught and transformed into outs, it could have resulted in a run worth swing someplace within the neighborhood of two whole runs. That’s not nothing, nevertheless it’s nowhere close to sufficient to place a giant dent in De La Cruz’s general defensive worth.
That alone is sufficient to blow up my concept. Extra importantly, these seven performs made up simply 25% of De La Cruz’s throwing errors and 13% of his errors general. Even with out them, from 2024 to 2025, he’d nonetheless lead all of baseball in errors and rank fourth in throwing errors. I watched all of De La Cruz’s throwing errors, and he actually does throw the ball each which means. Watch them back-to-back and you’re going to get very used to listening to Cincinnati play-by-play man John Sadak exclaim, “TALL THROW!”
That is only a thought, however the truth that De La Cruz misses excessive so usually might even be a part of the explanation that first basemen aren’t scooping that lots of his low throws efficiently. In the event that they’re worrying about excessive throws and on the brink of leap, they’re in all probability not going to be fairly as prepared for a throw that’s off the mark low. Like I mentioned, that’s only a thought. Regardless, it actually is feasible that De La Cruz isn’t getting bailed out fairly as usually as the conventional shortstop, not less than partly as a result of he throws so laborious. That a part of my concept could even be possible. Nevertheless it’s not the explanation he leads the league in errors. He’s nonetheless incomes most of them honest and sq..