Fantasy Baseball Player Notes

Elly De La Cruz's 2025 season failed to showcase his elite fantasy ceiling. Fantasy managers expecting him to shore up the stolen base category were disappointed to see them drop from 67 to 37. However, after the season, the Reds revealed ELDC had played through a left quad strain for the entire second half, which is certainly supported by his first-half/second-half splits. Swing-and-miss remains part of his profile, though he did get his strikeout rate below 30% for the first time. His 2026 projections expect modest gains in efficiency rather than raw volume, with a stabilized strikeout rate supporting slightly better average and on-base results. The year-over-year trend in contact quality is encouraging, even if volatility persists. Elly remains a category-warping fantasy asset whose value hinges on embracing the variance.