Blue Jays would have to pay a Juan Soto-sized price for Elly de la Cruz

Elly de la Cruz has been a superstar for the Cincinnati Reds seemingly since his debut in June 2023. Over that time, he leads the league in stolen bases (169), is fifth in triples (29), and 13th in runs (373). When talking about five-tool players, one of the first players that should come to mind is de la Cruz. Lately, he has been dangled around as a potential trade piece. While it is confounding that a superstar level talent like him could be available, it makes sense as to why.

The Reds currently rank 27th in payroll (~$91 million) and given that his agent is Scott Boras, who has been known for not encouraging his young superstar clients to sign early career extensions, there is an expiration date for the relationship. At some point, the Reds will have to decide if they are willing to spend that money to keep him or trade him. Given their market size, they might have no choice but to trade him.

These types of trades of young "face of the franchise" type players don't come up too often. The most recent example where a young superstar talent was traded away due to financial concerns was Juan Soto.

After the Nationals failed to come to an agreement on a long-term extension with Soto, they traded him to the Padres in 2022. The package was highlighted by top prospects CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Robert Hassell III, James Wood, and Jarlin Susana.

At the time of the trade, Soto had two and a half seasons of control remaining. The prospects were not only ranked within the top five of the Padres system, Abrams, Gore and Hassell were also ranked in the top 100 on MLB Pipeline.

To put things into perspective, de la Cruz has accumulated 19.7 fWAR since making his debut. Soto accumulated 20.9 fWAR prior to his trade. He likely would have had a higher fWAR had it not been for the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Soto was also only 19 when he made his debut whereas de la Cruz was 21.

The shortstop comes with three more years of control meaning the package could look something similar to the Soto-to-Padres trade. With that said, what would a hypothetical package look like?

The Blue Jays will have to pay an extremely high price for his services

In order for a deal to work out with the Padres, the Blue Jays would likely have to include Trey Yesavage, Addison Barger, JoJo Parker, Nolan Perry and one of Will Brick or Johnny King.

Yesavage would have to be included as he is a young, cost-controlled starter. He has shown what he can be capable of based on his strong postseason run in 2025, and first Major League season in 2026.

In an injury-shortened season, the 23-year-old threw 97.2 innings, posted a 3.69 ERA with a 1.14 WHIP and 97 strikeouts. Yesavage would fit well in the Reds rotation headlined by Hunter Greene, and fellow 2024 draftee Chase Burns.

Barger is another younger, cost-controlled player and while there are some concerns over his health, he showed he has elite bat speed, hits the ball hard and has a cannon of an arm.

Players like de la Cruz do not come available often in the trade market and Parker would need to be included. Parker has exciting tools such as his hit and growing power. There are concerns about whether he can stick at shortstop or not, and if he has to move off, he loses some value if he cannot play at the premium position.

Perry was the Blue Jays' breakout prospect according to MLB Pipeline, after he made huge strides since coming back from Tommy John surgery. In 2026, he pitched at three levels, made it to Double-A, and appeared at the Futures' Game. While he does not have the same upside as Yesavage, Perry would add to what would suddenly be a deep rotation with Greene and Burns.

The Reds are lacking upper-level pitching prospects so they could prefer King over Brick. King made it to Double-A in 2026 and he did not look overwhelmed. If King can refine the command, he has the makings of a mid rotation starter. If he cannot, he could be a very effective closer, similar to Josh Hader.

Given the catcher depth in the system, the Blue Jays would have wiggle room to move one of their catchers. Brick has yet to debut but there is a lot to be excited about with the fourth rounder from this past summers draft. His 65-grade arm and 60-grade defense at catcher alone should give him a long big league career. If the bat develops accordingly, the possibilities are endless.

Admittedly, the Blue Jays do not possess the same fire power that other interested teams would have to acquire de la Cruz. In order to compensate for it, they would have to add more quality prospects, thus depleting what is already a middle of the road farm system. However, the more that has to be added, the less it becomes worth doing for the Blue Jays.

Would five of those players be enough or would the Reds still need more? And would the value of these five players eventually superseded what de la Cruz could give on his own? It would be a risky gamble but this is likely the level of return the Reds would be looking for.

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