Reds made plenty of mistakes in 2026, but Terry Francona (finally) nailed this one

Not much has gone right for the Cincinnati Reds this season. From injuries to poor performance, the team has been a bitter disappointment on the heels of an encouraging playoff run in 2025. Compounding issues have been some of the decisions that Terry Francona has made.

Defensive excellence was supposed to be a hallmark under Francona. It's the reason why the club traded for Ke'Bryan Hayes at last year's trade deadline, and oh, what a disaster that has been. Beyond that, Francona has stuck with struggling players like TJ Friedl and Matt McLain for far too long.

However, one move that he's made that looks brilliant is putting Elly De La Cruz in the leadoff spot. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like he's going to go back on that decision any time soon, either.

De La Cruz winding up batting first was something of an accident. Blake Dunn's injury in late June necessitated the change, and it couldn't have gone better.

The Reds' cornerstone is hitting .286/.381/.536 out of the leadoff spot, but that's just the start. When batting first, he's walking at a 13.4% clip while also posting a .250 ISO, which is his highest mark of any spot in the lineup.

On top of that, he's conquering the one gripe you could have about his offensive game: the strikeout. While the 24-year-old is striking out at a 27% rate overall on the season, he's going down via the K just 20.6% of the time when batting leadoff.

Elly De La Cruz batting leadoff is something that the Reds should never change

To be fair, it's only been 84 plate appearances for De La Cruz batting first, but really the size of the sample is irrelevant when we look at the caliber of player he's proven to be. It's safe to say that he'll continue to produce from the leadoff spot, even if there's a chance that his walks will taper off and his strikeouts will climb a bit.

Conventional wisdom had been that you need to put your best run-producer at No. 3 or No. 4 in the lineup, but in recent years that thinking has changed. The idea is that the higher a hitter is in the order, the more plate appearances he'll receive. Over the course of a 162-game season, that can add up to a significant increase in opportunities for a hitter.

Getting your best bats to the plate more often is always a winning strategy. If hitting from the leadoff spot helps his overall production, that's even better.

We haven't even truly seen the best of what De La Cruz can do while leading off, as the club has urged him to curb his stolen base adventures since his hamstring injury earlier in the year.

Once he's fully healed up, though, watch out. This is a guy with a 67 stolen base campaign under his belt, and while he might not ever hit that number again, he's always a threat to top 30 bags swiped in a given year.

If he's walking at this enhanced clip and hitting for power while leading off, that's the missing ingredient to make him absolutely lethal. It turns out, giving your best hitter more bites at the apple is a really solid strategy.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow