The Braves announced that outfielder Bryan De La Cruz has been signed to a non-guaranteed deal for the 2025 season. De La Cruz became a free agent after he was non-tendered by the Pirates last month.
No stranger to the NL East, De La Cruz spent broke into the majors with the Marlins in 2021 and spent parts of the next four seasons in the Miami outfield. A part-time role turned into essentially everyday duty by the end of the 2022 campaign, and De La Cruz hit .263/.311/.420 with 37 homers over 1200 plate appearances for the Fish during the 2021-23 seasons.
Unfortunately, the production trended downward, from a 111 wRC+ in 219 PA in De La Cruz’s rookie season to a 99 in 2022, then a 90 in 2023, and down to a 77 wRC+ in 2024. De La Cruz hit 21 homers this past season but only with a .233/.271/.384 slash line in 622 combined PA with the Marlins and Pirates. The bulk of the struggles came after Pittsburgh acquired De La Cruz at the trade deadline, as De La Cruz hit only .200/.220/.294 in 168 PA with his new team.
The dropoff was so drastic that the Pirates opted to non-tender De La Cruz rather than pay him a projected $4MM salary in the first of three arbitration-eligible seasons. Given those three years of control and the fact that the Bucs gave up two prospects for De La Cruz at the deadline, it would’ve been understandable if the Pirates had kept De La Cruz around for another look, yet the $4MM price tag and his sub-replacement level play made the non-tender a justifiable call.
De La Cruz has essentially been a power-only player to this point in his career, and he has had consistently solid hard-contact numbers. However, making contact has been a struggle since De La Cruz has a 25% career strikeout rate, and he doesn’t often take walks. De La Cruz has experience at all three outfield positions and he has a good throwing arm but is considered a middling defender at best.
More to come…
