This weekend offers a display of the best young talent at the shortstop position on one field. Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals and Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds face off this weekend for a clash of the best raw young talent at the shortstop position. With both teams competing in fierce wild card races, this is a very pivotal set of games for each team to take, going into the end of the regular season.
The two young stars despite both being recognized for their skill are at two very different points in their careers. On one hand, Bobby Witt Jr. is already an MVP candidate, battling the top hitters in the American League like Juan Soto and Aaron Judge for this season’s MVP award. On the other side of things, Elly De La Cruz is having a very solid year in his own right, but you can see that his game is nowhere near as polished as Witt’s to make Elly a National League MVP candidate.
This season, Bobby Witt Jr. leads the MLB in multiple categories. Witt currently leads the major leagues in games played at 120, runs scored at 101, hits at 166, and batting average at .347. He’s taken his game to a level most didn’t expect to see at this point in his young career, totalling out a 1.001 OPS and a 172 OPS+. Witt’s ability to hit the ball to all sides of the field, while having some of the best speed in the game allows him to put up numbers like he is this season, recording 23 home runs, 33 doubles, 11 triples, and 25 stolen bases.
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Witt’s in the upper echelon for the advanced metrics as well, ranking among the league’s best in exit velocity, barrel and hard hit rate while also ranking among the best in outs above average and sprint speed. He’s risen to be one of the best players in all of baseball in just his third season in Kansas City.
Elly De La Cruz is not yet to the level of a player like Bobby Witt Jr. at this point in his career, but all the potential to one day be in the same realm is visibly apparent. De La Cruz leads the major leagues in a couple of statistics, one great one and one not so great. Elly leads the MLB in stolen bases at 59, but also leads the league in strikeouts at 160.
The strikeouts are really the only glaring issue in Elly’s game. However at 22 years old, the approach should only mature and improve over time. His numbers have still been great this season en route to Elly’s first All Star selection. The switch hitter has a slashline of .264/.348/.494 for an OPS of .842. He’s been well above average this season with an OPS+ of 131.
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The power-speed threat with Elly is just as real as it is with Bobby Witt Jr., with 21 home runs, 27 doubles, seven triples to go along with his 59 stolen bases. His exit velocity, and hard hit numbers as a whole should improve over time, and if the whiffs and strikeouts decrease, expect to see De La Cruz getting MVP votes year in and year out.
The two will face off this weekend at Great American Ballpark, a notorious park for being hitter friendly. Numbers aside, it will be must-watch television to see Witt and De La Cruz show off their elite talent from the shortstop position as the future of baseball.