CINCINNATI (WXIX) - During the Cincinnati Reds series last week in St. Louis, Reds assistant hitting coach Alex Peláez was looking to create some buzz. So on the television screen in the batting cage, he pulled up clips of different Reds players hitting homers.

The clips that he showed of Elly De La Cruz were from earlier in the career of the Reds’ shortstop. They showed examples of what De La Cruz’s swing used to look like — heading into 2025, he ditched his big leg kick and started using a more subtle toe tap.

De La Cruz got real quiet as he watched these clips. Then, he went into the batting cage and took some swings.

He used the leg kick.

The Reds’ shortstop has been fiddling with his swing all summer to try to get out of the slump that he has been in. But in eight games dating bac

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