Elly De La Cruz is Leading in Both Stolen Bases and Strikeouts

Issue #191

Cincinnati Reds 22-year old SS Elly De La Cruz is an exciting player, no doubt about it. Lately he has been particularly hot and cold at the plate: 0-4 (3 SO), 3-5, 0-4 (3 SO), 4-5, 4-5.

Looking at his MLB career so far, in his partial rookie season last year he had 13 HR, 7 triples, and 35 SB in only 98 games. His slash line percentages were less impressive at only .235/.300/.410, resulting in a below league-average OPS+ of only 89. And most disturbingly he had 144 strikeouts in those 98 games and 388 at-bats.

So far in 2024 he has improved pretty much across the board offensively. Through games of August 9th, he already has 20 HR and has matched his 7 triples from last year. He is leading the majors with 59 stolen bases, far ahead of second place Brice Turang of the Brewers who has 33. His slash line is a nicely improved .269/.355/.501, which means his OPS+ has risen dramatically from 89 to 135. Even his strikeout rate has improved, if only a little, from 33.7% to 30.4%.

That said, he is still leading the majors in strikeouts with 149. That is four ahead of St. Louis’ Nolan Gorman’s 145, and nine ahead of Colorado’s Ezequiel Tovar’s 140. (And De La Cruz just add three more K’s tonight too.)

It occurred to me that leading all of baseball in both SB and strikeouts would seem to be a pretty rare thing. I think there is at least a mild correlation historically, with the kind of players who steal a lot of bases tending not to be the ones who strikeout a lot. And vice-versa: the guys who strikeout a lot have tended to not be the fleet-of-foot types who steal a lot of bases.

Fans can immediately think of plenty of exceptions to this stereotype. My mind went back to my childhood in the 1980s, and guys like Howard Johnson, Eric Davis, Gary Pettis, Vince Coleman, and Juan Samuel, who I remember stole plenty of bases but also struck out a lot.

I somewhat arbitrarily plugged 50+ SB and 120+ strikeouts into Stathead, and it turns out there have been 19 such seasons:

• 2024: Elly De La Cruz, 59 SB, 149 SO — so far!

• 2023: Corbin Carroll, 54 SB, 125 SO

• 2017: Billy Hamilton, 59 SB, 133 SO

• 2016: Jonathan Villar, 62 SB, 174 SO

• 2011: Michael Bourn, 61 SB, 140 SO

• 2009: Michael Bourn, 61 SB, 140 SO

• 2006: Hanley Ramirez, 51 SB, 128 SO

• 1997: Brian Hunter, 74 SB, 121 SO

• 1992: Pat Listach, 54 SB, 124 SO

• 1991: Delino DeShields, 56 SB, 151 SO

• 1987: Vince Coleman, 109 SB, 126 SO

• 1987: Eric Davis, 50 SB, 134 SO

• 1986: Gary Pettis, 50 SB, 132 SO

• 1985: Gary Pettis, 56 SB, 125 SO

• 1985: Juan Samuel, 53 SB, 141 SO

• 1984: Juan Samuel, 72 SB, 168 SO

• 1982: Omar Moreno, 60 SB, 121 SO

• 1968: Lou Brock, 62 SB, 124 SO

• 1966: Lou Brock, 74 SB, 134 SO

That is not a typo in the list: Michael Bourn had exactly 61 SB and 140 SO in both 2009 and 2011. With so much data in baseball, such oddities are bound to happen here and there—yet I’m always surprised when they pop up!

It is also interesting to see that the first time these two totals were achieved by the same guy in a season didn’t happen until Lou Brock in 1966. How long would the above list grow if I adjusted one or both of the criteria just a bit?

• 45+ SB and 120+ SO = 26 seasons, with the first time still being Brock in 1966

• 50+ SB and 115+ SO = 24 seasons, with the first time now being Brock… but in 1965, when he had 63 SB and 116 SO.

• 45+ SB and 115+ SO = 33 seasons, with the first three times still being those Brock 1965, 1966, and 1968 seasons

• 40+ SB and 110+ SO = 80 seasons. That really expanded the list… but amazingly Lou Brock was still the first, now with his 1964 season of 43 SB and 127 SO. Nestled amongst the now four Brock seasons are also Jim Wynn in 1965 (43 SB, 126 SO) and Tommie Agee in 1966 (44 SB, 127 SO).

• 40+ SB and 100+ SO = 115 seasons. Ahh, the 40/100 club. That has a nice ring to it. And here we have over 100 seasons, with the first occurrences now well before Lou Brock. Though it was quite rare before he came along, with only Danny Hoffman of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1905 (46 SB, 105 SO) and Danny Moeller of the 1913 Washington Senators (62 SB, 103 SO). Odd that the only two members of this club for 60 years were both named Danny!

In my above list of 19 seasons of 50+ SB and 120+ SO, I indicated in bold where the player led his league in either categories. On that list, only Elly De La Cruz this year (so far) has both numbers in bold. That doesn’t mean of course that no one else has ever led their league in both categories—or as Elly is doing so far this year—led both the AL and NL in the same season in both categories.

To determine that, I exported from baseball-reference.com the single-season leaders in each of the categories in each league, lined them up in spreadsheet columns, and looked for the same guy appearing in both columns. Here are the only examples I found, with my ultimate search being to see if anyone has ever lead all of MLB (both the AL and NL) in both categories in the same season:

• AL, 1938: Frankie Crosetti (NYY) led the AL with a modest 27 SB, and also led the AL with 97 SO. But in the NL, Vince DiMaggio (BSN) led with 134 SO, so Crosetti didn't lead the combined AL/NL in SO.

• NL, 1911: Bob Bescher (CIN) led with 81 SB, and tied with Bob Coulsen (BRO) in leading with 78 SO. But in the AL that year Ty Cobb (DET) had 83 SB and Jimmy Austin (SLB) had 95 SO.

• NL, 1905 and AL 1905: Billy Maloney (CHC) tied with Art Devlin (NYG) in leading with 59 SB, and Maloney led the NL with 84 SO. And in the AL in 1905, the aforementioned Danny Hoffman (PHA) led with 46 SB and 105 SO. But that means Hoffman led the combined NL/AL in SO, while Devlin and Maloney led the combined NL/AL in SB.

Did I miss anyone? So as far as I can tell, no player has ever led the combined AL/NL in both stolen bases and strikeouts in the same season. If Elly De La Cruz does so in 2024, I think he will be the first.

And as a final sidenote… Elly De La Cruz is for now also tied for the MLB lead in errors committed. He and fellow exciting-young-shortstop Oneill Cruz of the Pirates each have 22 errors through August 9th.

Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.