The 2025 Major League Baseball All-Star game will take place on Tuesday, July 15th in Atlanta, Georgia. The starters for the game were named earlier this week after the fan vote was completed. Today the rest of the team was announced, as voted on by the players and decided by the commissioners office. Managers no longer get to pick players for the teams.
Cincinnati doesn’t have anyone in the starting lineup (at least at this point). But they did land one player on the team – Elly De La Cruz. The shortstop is heading to the All-Star game for the second season in a row.
The Reds best position player, De La Cruz has stepped up his game at the plate so far in 2025. In his 89 games player he’s hitting .279/.352/.491. All three portions of that slash line represent what would be career highs. He’s hit 15 doubles, two triples, and a team best 18 home runs. He’s also added in 22 stolen bases to this point in the season.
The strikeout rate for De La Cruz has come way down this season. He struck out 33.7% of the time as a rookie in 2023. Last season that dropped to 31.3%. But in 2025 it’s all the way down to 25.3%. And he’s done that while keeping his walk rate nearly identical to where it was in 2024.
Joel Luckhaupt pointed out on Bluesky earlier today that with his selection to the All-Star team, Elly De La Cruz is the first Cincinnati Reds player to make multiple All-Star games before his 24th birthday since Johnny Bench and only the 4th Red to ever do so. Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson also did so.
Left off of the team was Andrew Abbott. There were a handful of starting pitchers who have a great argument for inclusion and the Reds lefty is one of them. He’s made 15 starts and thrown 83.2 innings. Abbott is 7-1 on the year with a 2.15 ERA, 22 walks, and 78 strikeouts. Among pitchers with 80 innings, his ERA ranks 2nd in the National League – trailing just Paul Skenes.
It’s still possible that someone else could be named as a replacement, but we’re going to have to wait and see how that unfolds over the next week.
The post Elly De La Cruz in rare company as the Reds lone All-Star selection appeared first on Redleg Nation.