Why Elly De La Cruz’s Home Run Power Has Vanished Over His Last 200 Plate Appearances

Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz has 19 home runs on the season, but just one over his last 201 plate appearances, causing some concern for Reds fans.

Let's take a look at his numbers over that time span.

When it comes to his power output and contact quality, his Isolate Power is down from .182 to .083 over that stretch. He has 47 extra-base hits on the season, but just 12 extra-base hits over this timeframe.

Now, let's take a look at his approach.

His line drive percentage over this time has climbed from 16.1% to 22.6%. When he's hitting the ball hard, he's not elevating it, and those line drives are going for singles rather than extra-base hits or doubles.

His fly ball percentage has dipped from 31.9% to 29.3%, which isn't a huge dip, but when you pair that with a lower pull rate, it matters.

He's hitting fewer ground balls over this time, 52% on the season, compared to 48.1% over this stretch.

His pull percentage is down nearly 4%, but his opposite field percentage is up to 27.8% compared to 21.8% on the season as a whole.

Home runs usually come from pulling fly balls. De La Cruz is pulling 4% fewer balls and hitting 2.5% fewer fly balls over this stretch.

Even at a hitter-friendly ballpark like Great American Ball Park, hitting balls the opposite way isn't going to translate to a ton of home runs.

His walk percentage and strikeout percentage is nearly the same and his plate discilpline has not changed much over the timeframe.

De La Cruz is hitting fewer pulled fly balls, he's going opposite field more often, and he's hitting more line drives for singles than home runs and extra-base hits.

Is this a change to his approach? Considering his walk and strikeout percentages are pretty much unchanged, this wouldn't make a ton of sense.

It came out last week that he's been battling a quad issue for some time now. Could that be contributing to him hitting for less power?

Whatever the reason, the Reds' offense is much better when De La Cruz is hitting for power. They need the 23-year-old to find that power for the stretch run to help them make a push for the postseason.

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