It is Elly De La Cruz’s world, and we are just living in it.
One of the biggest stories of the Major League Baseball season has been the arrival of the Cincinnati Reds rookie. De La Cruz has only played in nine games at the MLB level, but the hype has been real thus far.
Perhaps the biggest example of that is his NL Rookie of the Year odds. When news broke of his debut, most sports betting sites moved his odds to as low as +300. FanDuel Sportsbook held strong at +1000 for a bit but ultimately dropped the price accordingly.
Now, FanDuel has De La Cruz’s odds to win the award at +750. That puts him second in the betting market behind Arizona Diamondbacks rookie Corbin Carroll, who is having an MVP-level season. Carroll is valued at -320 as the clear favorite, though De La Cruz is certainly lurking.
At +750, De La Cruz has an implied probability of 11.76% of winning the award. This is Carroll’s race to lose after his head start on the year, but De La Cruz has the star power to make up for lost time.
Despite the 55-game disadvantage in this race, De La Cruz possesses the perfect blend of power and speed to pile up key stats. That was on display from the moment he stepped on an MLB diamond, according to this tweet from MLB Pipeline.
De La Cruz recorded the two hardest-hit balls and two fastest sprint speeds for the Reds within his first five at-bats. He hit the team’s longest home run of the year with a 458-foot blast, and he owns MLB’s fastest home-to-third time of the year at 10.83 seconds.
In nine games, De La Cruz is hitting .235 with a .350 on-base percentage to go along with one home run, four RBIs and five stolen bases. This comes after he clubbed 12 home runs and swiped 11 stolen bases in 38 games at the Triple-A level earlier this year.
Despite the De La Cruz buzz, as well as an 8-2 clip over the last 10 games, the Reds remain long shots with a 34-35 overall record. Cincinnati sits third in the NL Central, trailing both the Pittsburgh Pirates (34-32) and Milwaukee Brewers (34-34) at this point in the season.
At FanDuel, Cincinnati has the worst odds to win the division with a price of +900. The Brewers have the best odds at +100, followed by the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs who are both listed at +450. The Pirates have a +550 value at this point in the season.
In the National League pennant race, the Reds are listed at 130/1 to reach the World Series. Only the Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals, who are both 500/1, have worse odds in this market.
Cincinnati is listed at 250/1 to win the World Series, which ranks 24th in the league.
