Elly De La Cruz's Potential Contract Extension Value Revealed

On July 2, 2018, the Reds signed a little-known 16-year-old international free agent by the name of Elly De La Cruz. He was nothing like what he is today; De La Cruz was a guy brought along to make another shortstop look good. Now, he's one of MLB's biggest stars despite playing in one of the smallest markets.

In 2018, the Reds signed him to a $65,000 contract, expecting very little. This year, the transcendent shortstop is earning $742,500 after getting his contract renewed. He's not eligible for arbitration until after next year, and the Reds have been working on extensions ever since he showed what he can do.

Represented by Scott Boras, there is very little hope he signs anything that could be considered team-friendly. To his credit, Boras gets his clients paid. But, needless to say, De La Cruz is going to garner more money than Votto did.

Recently, Jeff Passan of ESPN projected the future contracts of all of MLB's top stars, including De La Cruz. In his opinion, correctly, Passan believes De La  Cruz to be in the "north of $500 million" range when it's all said and done:

"Multiple executives named the Reds star as a potential successor to Soto, but the math is likely to prevent that from happening. With less than two years of service time, De La Cruz won't be a free agent until the class of 2029-30, at which point he'll be 28. 

"Even if he receives a 13-year deal, De La Cruz would need an average salary of nearly $59 million a year to exceed Soto's contract. Is it possible? Well, sure. De La Cruz is that talented. But he hasn't produced at an exceptionally high level, hitting .252/.328/.444 for his career. De La Cruz is electric, no question, but he must offer multiple MVP-caliber seasons to be in the conversation, and he hasn't produced even one yet.

The context here is looking at players who could surpass Juan Soto's ridiculous $765 million contract with the New York Mets.

Passan is correct, De La Cruz is not set to hit the market until after the 2029 season. He does pour cold water on the prospect of De La Cruz cashing in in a major way, considering he hasn't played 300 games at the MLB level. However, he has that MVP-level ceiling that will help.

Reds fans have been clamoring for the Reds to just bite the bullet and extend him ASAP. He's only going to get more expensive as time goes on, and it would absolutely behoove the Reds to lock him down.

It's not going to happen, and, in reality, Reds fans should come to terms with the fact that De La Cruz is likely going to be traded by the 2029 trade deadline. For as poorly run as the Reds are, they aren't the Los Angeles Angels. They'll make sure to get something, anything in return for De La Cruz, something the Angels failed to do in a lost season when they refused to flip Shohei Ohtani for a king's ransom.