CINCINNATI -- Follow-up MRI tests are fairly common for players to check their healing or progress from an injury. When it's for All-Star shortstop Elly De La Cruz, who has been sorely missed from the Reds' lineup, the results of his MRI on Friday were highly anticipated.
“He got, I’d say, very good news,” manager Terry Francona said. “He’s about 90 percent healed, which is fantastic. He’s upping the activity -- the intensity and the amount of it -- and then we’ll let him go over the weekend and then we’ll kind of put our heads together again on Sunday and see where we think he’s at.”
The outcome from those conversations could include a Minor League rehab assignment, but that's not a guarantee.
“Certainly, he has an opinion. We just need to try to temper that sometimes because he wants to play so bad, and it’s appreciated. But we don’t want to hurt him either,” Francona said.
What was De La Cruz's opinion?
“He wanted to play tonight,” Francona said.
De La Cruz, 23, was placed on the 10-day injured list for the first time in his career on June 1 because of a right hamstring strain that happened while running on a hit during the previous day's game vs. the Braves. The original diagnosis indicated it was between a Grade 1 and Grade 2 strain and he was expected to miss 2-4 weeks.
It ended De La Cruz's streak of 276 consecutive games played. This season, he is batting .280 with an .855 OPS, 12 home runs, 37 RBIs and 10 steals in 58 games. Entering Friday, the Reds had lost seven of nine games since he went on the IL.
De La Cruz traveled with the Reds on their most recent road trip to St. Louis and San Diego, and he did some lighter workouts and fielding.
During a team off-day on Thursday, De La Cruz was with High-A Dayton -- in partial uniform -- watching from the dugout as the Dragons played Fort Wayne.
“He actually wanted to go work out. We told him if he was going to work out, he had to come in here so we could keep an eye on him,” Francona said. “Elly is kind of amazing. I believe that you could almost will yourself [to heal quickly] sometimes. I think there’s people like that, and he’s certainly one of them.”