It’s official. Elly De La Cruz will be one of the next cover athletes for the MLB: The Show franchise. Fellow young superstars Paul Skenes and Gunnar Henderson will join him. This should be a moment of rejoicing. After all, De La Cruz is the first Reds player to grace the cover of this video game; however, those familiar with the Madden Curse may be looking on in terror.
MLB: The Show doesn’t have the same association with devastation that Madden does, but there does seem to be a bit of a regression for the cover athletes. In particular, the 2020s have not been kind to the faces of the franchise.
Javier Báez’s OPS has been nearly 150 points lower since gracing the cover. Jazz Chisholm had to move teams in order to find his spark again, and Fernando Tatis Jr. missed a whole season due to a PED suspension. Only Shohei Ohtani and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. have seen substantial improvement since their cover year.
Elly De La Cruz hopes to avoid the fate of previous MLB: The Show cover athletes.
So there’s hope. Despite De La Cruz’s weaknesses (way too many strikeouts), he’s far from a one-trick pony. He possesses game-changing speed, astounding arm strength, and power to all fields. That should prevent him from going down the same path as Báez, whose steady decline in barrels and exit velocity earned him the distinction as the worst contract in baseball.
Elly De La Cruz really can do it all ... guy showed everyone he can juggle at his @MLBTheShow cover shoot 😂👏 pic.twitter.com/0fnoItO4yl
— MLB (@MLB) January 29, 2025
If anything, De La Cruz shares the most in common with Guerrero. When the Blue Jays star’s performance dipped from superhuman to simply very good in 2022, he supplemented with other skills. He won a Gold Glove and stole a career-high eight bases. (I know. Not that impressive…) The point is he found other ways to be great despite his OPS falling almost 200 points. In fact, he still made the All-Star team and garnered MVP votes.
De La Cruz has the skills and versatility to adapt in much the same way, and under Terry Francona’s tutelage, he should have the patience, maturity, and coaching to weather any slumps. His willingness to adapt and shift his role on the team will also help him avoid the (perhaps fictional) MLB: The Show curse.