While 2023 was the introduction of Elly De La Cruz to Major League Baseball, it was 2024 that saw him really break out and announce his presence with authority. The 22-year-old shortstop had 6.4 WAR (Fangraphs version) this past season for the Cincinnati Reds. De La Cruz was elite in one area – baserunning. But he was very good on the defensive side of things even with a large amount of errors due to his ability to make plays that no one else in the game can make. And he also hit for plenty of power. Still, his outstanding season was only good enough to finish in 8th place in the voting for the 2024 National League Most Valuable Player Award.
Shohei Ohtani would get all 30 votes for 1st place as he ran away with the award. Elly De La Cruz would get four votes for 4th place, and then get votes at the other spots between there and 10th. He was the only Reds player to earn a vote this season.
For his part he would hit .259/.339/.471 with 36 doubles, 10 triples, 25 home runs, and a league best 67 stolen bases. He led all of baseball in steals and even topped the Minnesota Twins as a whole by two steals. De La Cruz, according to Fangraphs, finished 3rd in the National League in both baserunning value and defensive value. His WAR was also 3rd best in the NL, trailing Ohtani’s 9.1 and Francisco Lindor’s 7.8. Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale was tied with De La Cruz on the WAR leaderboard at 6.4.
The four writers who voted for the Reds shortstop at the #4 spot were Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated, David Lennon of Newsday, Alex Stumpf of MLB.com, and Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News.
The two votes from the Cincinnati chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America who voted on the award this year were C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic and Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Rosecrans gave De La Cruz a vote for 8th place. Wittenmyer voted for him at the #9 spot.
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