In Pictures: Elly De La Cruz "becomes man of the people," inspiring Monte Plata kids with All-Star spirit

Cincinnati Reds star Elly De La Cruz dazzled fans in his native Dominican Republic, appearing in a game in the nation’s Monte Plata province. De La Cruz’s appearance wowed the young fans in attendance as he wore his full All-Star uniform on the field.

De La Cruz then took the time to meet the children and shared his wisdom on baseball-related matters.

MLB published a series of photos from the event on its official Instagram account.

“A man of the people (and style),” @mlb captioned on Wednesday.

The comments underscore the humility and down-to-earth nature that has characterized the Reds shortstop.

Fans also captured pictures of De La Cruz’s appearance, showcasing his unmatched closeness to the local community.

De La Cruz spends his offseasons at his home in the Dominican Republic. For now, he has time to relax and unwind before the rigors of the new season begin as he and the Reds are expected to be contenders in the National League.

Elly De La Cruz leads base-stealing metrics

An article published by Sports Illustrated on Tuesday detailed how Elly De La Cruz is the most aggressive base stealer in the Majors, according to new data from Statcast.

The data revealed that the Reds speedster led the Majors in stolen bases and at times caught stealing. The data shows that the number of swiped bags outweighs the outs.

De La Cruz’s efforts resulted in +50 bases gained when compared to the average.

When looking at the raw numbers, De La Cruz stole 67 bases last season, while getting nailed 16 times. On a simple average, he gained 51 more bases. Those numbers work out to roughly 80% effectiveness, based on data from Baseball Reference.

Notably, De La Cruz walked 69 times in 618 plate appearances last season. So a premiere base stealer like De La Cruz must get on base more often.

His .339 OBP, while not bad by any means, could still improve to allow him more opportunities to steal bases. De La Cruz could potentially swipe 100 bases for the first time since Vince Coleman did it in 1987.