Ex-Yankees coach urges Elly De La Cruz to mimic Aaron Judge’s Mike Tyson-esque slugging technique

Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz has the makings to become a hitter parallel to New York Yankees captain and reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge. Both sluggers have an above-average height on them, making them a bright candidate for a fine-hitting mechanism.

On Thursday, former Yankees coach Sean Casey delved into how De La Cruz can improve his slugging process and fine-tune it to the one Judge uses.

During Wednesday's episode of The Mayor's Office, Casey emphasized that De La Cruz, much like Judge, must capitalize on his long limbs by maximizing extension and targeting pitches in the "up and out" zone

"You're 6'5", 6'7"—you’ve got to get your arms extended," Casey said (11:06 onwards). "You're not using your height, your length, or your athleticism. Go look at Aaron Judge’s heat map—he does so much damage middle-away."

He also cited the example of Mike Tyson's knockout in boxing where he connected with his opponent's chin in the middle of a punch extension and then went through with it to land a KO.

"When a boxer throws a punch fully extended and catches you on the chin, it rattles you, but it doesn’t knock you out," Casey added. "But if I can get you close, like Tyson used to get in on guys, and I make contact, then go through you—I’m gonna knock you out. It’s the same thing with baseball. You’ve got to be able to get the ball on you and then get through it."

Elly De La Cruz gets it rolling with power on spring debut

Switch hitter Elly De La Cruz scored a pair of home runs from both ways in his spring debut on Saturday during the Reds’ 6-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians at Goodyear Ballpark.

“We’re ready to go," De La Cruz said. "Left side, right side, it always feels good [to homer].”

The first home run came against Guardians' Triston McKenzie's 2-2 pitch in the first innings with two outs and the Reds trailing 2-0. It was a 450 ft bomb in right-center field. The ambidextrous Elly De La Cruz played lefty for that at-bat.

“I was just thinking there’s no better way to start your season than to go deep from both sides of the plate,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “That was pretty impressive.”

The second home run came in the fourth inning when De La Cruz clubbed a right-handed homer off lefty Logan Allen for a 409 ft distance.

“The first one was a curveball. The second one was a fastball," De La Cruz said.

Elly De La Cruz can grow into a symbol of speed and power. Last year he hit 25 homers and led the majors with 67 stolen bases. He's looking forward to better his home run number and the hot start at spring training will do him well.