This story was excerpted from the Reds Beat newsletter, with David Adler filling in for Mark Sheldon. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Obviously, Elly De La Cruz is a great basestealer. Everybody knows that. He just led the Major Leagues with 67 stolen bases.
But we have a new way to break down Elly’s basestealing now. Statcast launched a basestealing leaderboard this week that can give us a lot more details about how De La Cruz owns the basepaths.
He is No. 1 on the leaderboard, of course.
Elly led MLB with +40 Net Bases Gained in 2024. That’s basically his successful stolen bases above the average runner, based on the success probability of all his steal opportunities.
But there’s a lot more to dive into. Here are five fun facts about De La Cruz’s basestealing domination:
1) He’s the most aggressive runner in baseball
De La Cruz’s +40 Net Bases Gained is the difference between his successful advances vs. average (+50) compared to his outs made vs. average (-10).
That number shows you how his aggressiveness pays off. Even though De La Cruz led the Majors in both stolen bases and caught-stealings, he was still a huge net positive for the Reds.
And Elly is extremely aggressive. He ran on 8.7% of his total stolen bases opportunities last season (pitches thrown when he was on first or second base with no runners in front of him). No baserunner attempted steals at a higher frequency.
Highest stolen-base attempt % in 2024
Elly De La Cruz: 8.7%Dairon Blanco: 8.7%David Hamilton: 8.1%Pete Crow-Armstrong: 7.8%José Caballero: 7.2%
2) He’s the king of stealing third
De La Cruz’s specialty is stealing third base. He’s the best at it.
Elly had +17 Net Bases Gained on steals of third alone. When you think about how much less often third base is stolen than second, that’s a ton of value De La Cruz is providing from swiping the less-swiped bag.
De La Cruz was easily the top thief of third base by Net Bases Gained. Only two other players, Maikel Garcia and Victor Robles, were +10 or better.
And just like he was MLB’s most aggressive basestealer overall, De La Cruz was MLB’s most aggressive basestealer of third, running on 6% of his opportunities.
3) He’s so fast that he doesn’t need a huge jump to steal
De La Cruz had an average sprint speed of 30.0 feet per second last season, and 30 ft/sec or faster is Statcast’s benchmark for elite MLB speed. He was top three on the sprint speed leaderboard.
Basically, that means De La Cruz is one of the few players fast enough to simply outrun the opposing defense. He doesn’t need to get huge jumps to steal.
From when the pitcher starts his delivery to when he releases the pitch, De La Cruz only gets an average of 8.9 extra feet down the line on his steal attempts. That lead distance gained is the smallest of the 72 basestealers with at least +5 Net Bases Gained in 2024.
Shortest avg. lead distance gained^ on SB attempts, 2024
Of basestealers with at least +5 Net Bases Gained
Elly De La Cruz: 8.9 feetBrenton Doyle: 8.9 feetJonny DeLuca: 9.3 feetBobby Witt Jr.: 9.4 feetJackson Chourio: 9.7 feet
^Distance covered by basestealer between start of pitcher’s delivery and pitch release
For players like De La Cruz and Witt (MLB-best 30.5 ft/sec sprint speed), pure top-of-the-scale speed, not their jumps, is what lets them steal so many bases.
4) He loves to steal off lefties
Another thing Elly can do with his blazing speed and extreme aggressiveness is run wild off left-handed pitchers, even though they’re staring him down at first base.
De La Cruz had +15 Net Bases Gained against lefties, the best of any player. He ran even more against left-handers than he did overall, attempting steals on an MLB-high 10.9% of his opportunities — almost twice as often as the next-closest runner, Xavier Edwards (5.7%).
And specifically stealing second base off lefties, which in theory should be the most difficult situation, De La Cruz was again the top MLB basestealer, with +9 Net Bases Gained. His attempt percentage was 14.5% — again, the highest.
5) Once the pitcher steps off, he takes off
De La Cruz is also having a field day with the new rules limiting pitchers to two pickoff attempts per plate appearance.
Once the pitcher starts throwing over to try to hold De La Cruz, it just makes him bolder. Of his +40 Net Bases Gained in 2024, +24 came after the pitcher stepped off the rubber at least once, the best of any player.
De La Cruz’s Net Bases Gained by # of pitcher step-offs
• 0 disengagements: +16 (3rd in MLB)
• 1 disengagement: +15 (1st in MLB)
• 2 disengagements: +9 (1st in MLB)
Before the pitcher steps off for the first time, De La Cruz runs on 5.5% of his opportunities. When the pitcher has stepped off once, he runs on 16.4% of his opportunities. And after the pitcher has stepped off twice, he runs on 20.6% of his opportunities.
The pitcher can try whatever he wants to stop De La Cruz. It will probably just backfire, and Elly will end up on the next base anyway.