Reds’ Elly De La Cruz Turned Down Potential Team-Record Contract Last Spring

The shortstop turned 24 on Sunday.

As is true of many young MLB players, Elly De La Cruz’s pay has yet to catch up with his talent. | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

Shortstop Elly De La Cruz is the Reds’ best position player since longtime first baseman Joey Votto, so it stands to reason that De La Cruz should be compensated like Votto.

However, the two-time All-Star appears to be thinking beyond early-2010s salary figures. On Friday, Cincinnati president of baseball operations Nick Krall revealed at the Reds’ fan fest that De La Cruz turned down the largest contract offer in Reds history in the spring of 2025.

“We made Elly an offer that would’ve made him the highest-paid Red ever,” Krall said via C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. “That’s not where he is and you respect that. It’s their career. You keep going and you keep working on what you can do today.”

“I let my agent take care of all of that,” De La Cruz—a client of superagent Scott Boras—said via Rosecrans.

De La Cruz, 24, is due an estimated $820,000 in salary in 2026—his final season before becoming eligible for arbitration.

In ‘25, he slashed .264/.336/.440 with 22 home runs and 86 RBIs, making a second All-Star team and recording 3.6 bWAR. That followed a ballyhooed 2024 breakout, in which he led baseball with 67 steals and finished in the top 10 of the National League MVP voting.

Votto signed a 10-year contract worth $225 million in April 2012, which he validated with four top-10 MVP finishes in the next six seasons.

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