WASHINGTON – Maybe the Cincinnati Reds didn’t get overlooked for All-Star consideration as much as it first seemed.
Turns out a second Reds player got invited to Seattle for All-Star week – albeit, for the Home Run Derby.
Rookie sensation Elly De La Cruz said Monday he was invited through his agent to participate in next Monday’s popular Derby, despite barely 20 games in the big leagues, but declined.
“I’d rather focus on this season and make sure I’m able to contribute to this team and help this team win,” De La Cruz, who hit a 458-foot home run in his second big-league game June 7, said Monday through team interpreter Jorge Merlos.
Early honors for rookie De La Cruz
De La Cruz, who hit for the cycle and earned National League Player of the Week honors his third week in the majors, said he received the Home Run Derby invitation over the weekend through his agent, Scott Boras, and came close to accepting before talking it through.
“I told him this is how it’s going to go,” Boras said of laying out the grind of the quick Milwaukee-to-Seattle-to-Cincinnati turnaround from late Sunday night to Tuesday departure from Seattle.
“And then you’re going to go out and perform, and then you’re going to be sore, because it’s like nothing you’ve ever done,” said Boras, who also pointed out the six-figure chunk of Derby money he was assured of making by participating, the swag and that “the fame of your career will be advanced.”
At which point De La Cruz asked the agent’s advice, and Boras suggested it was best to decline “for your long-term performance and the team,” Boras said.
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Whether America’s loss Monday night turns out to be the Reds’ gain down the stretch, the only thing for sure is De La Cruz won’t take a swing at adding the Reds’ two championships in the nearly four decades of the event (Todd Frazier in 2015 and Eric Davis, who tied with Ruben Sierra in 1989).
Frazier suggested last week that De La Cruz declines if asked, citing the fatigue factor and echoing some of Boras’ advice.
“I think it’d be pretty cool,” Frazier said. “But I just don’t think this might be the year for it, since the team is doing well, too. … If you want excitement, yeah, put him on there. But if I were him I would tread lightly doing it.”
De La Cruz, whom Boras said initially leaned towards declining, never took the process far enough that team officials knew he was invited.
That includes manager David Bell, who didn’t know until Monday afternoon − but appreciated the maturity of the 21-year-old’s choice.
“I support the decision that Elly made,” Bell said.
Money possibly left on the table
Even if it might have cost De La Cruz more money than he’ll make this season.
The New York Mets’ Pete Alonso, for example, made more money by winning the $1 million first-place Derby money in 2019 and 2021 than he did in salary either of those seasons.
Alonso is back in this year’s Derby, along with the Tampa Bay Rays’ Randy Arozarena, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts, the Baltimore Orioles’ Adley Rutschman, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and hometown star Julio Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners.
De La Cruz, who debuted June 6, is making the prorated major-league minimum of $720,000 this year.
“He’s about performance, and he’s about the team,” Boras said. “The notoriety and additional money are secondary to team goals to him.”
Said De La Cruz: “I want to take mine [All-Star] break in order to be ready for the rest of the season.”
Now, if he were to get invited to the actual All-Star game to join teammate Alexis Diaz as, say, an injury replacement, that might elicit a different answer, he said.
“Si.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds Elly De La Cruz declined MLB Home Run Derby invite