The individual hardware kept coming for the Cincinnati Reds even after the season, defying their last-place finish in the NL Central.
Shortstop Elly De La Cruz, who finished off the fourth 30-30 season in franchise history over the weekend in Toronto, won National League Player of the Month honors for September.
He hit .348 with nine home runs, six stolen bases and a 1.156 OPS, playing in all 24 of the Reds games in September.
He’s the second Red to win a player of the month award this season, joining outfielder JJ Bleday (May).
And first baseman Sal Stewart earned NL Rookie of the Month awards for both March/April and August – nabbing a player of the week award along the way.
De La Cruz, who was already off to a good start when he missed three weeks
in June because of a hamstring injury, was one of the top performers in baseball after the injury.
Over his final 80 games, he hit .294 with 18 homers, 20 stolen bases, a .385 on-base percentage and .929 OPS.
He ranked second only to presumptive MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs in fangraphs.com WAR in that span.
Teammate Eugenio Suárez calls De La Cruz a “top three” player in baseball, “for real,” after seeing up close every day for a season after only playing a few games a season against him in recent years.
“He’s more special than I thought,” Suárez said. “And he wants more. Almost every day he told me, ‘I want more, I want more, I want more.’
“And he knows how to use his tools now.”
Suárez described a more mature, focused player who quickly fixes mistakes and has learned to take walks.
“When you see that, you see the superstar,” Suárez said. “He was a star. But now he’s on top of the league.”
After hitting his 30th home run of the season in Atlanta on Sept. 24, De La Cruz stole third base the next night in Toronto for his 30th steal to join mentors Eric Davis and Barry Larkin, along with Brandon Phillips as the only Reds to pull off a 30-30 season.
De La Cruz, a switch-hitter who’s still just 24, focused during the offseason and in spring training on improving from the right side of the plate and made a stunning leap in performance – hitting .329 as a right-handed hitter with 11 homers and a 1.1014 OPS in 189 plate appearances.
But when asked where he thinks he improved the most, he didn’t single out any area of his game.
“I think every part,” he said. “And for next season I’m just going to keep working hard and getting better, and doing the little details.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds star Elly De La Cruz earns another MLB honor after 30-30 season
