Bryan De La Cruz can hit, and he can do it at the major league level.

In the not-too-distant past, De La Cruz was a hot name on a young Miami Marlins team that was supposed to round into something special. Through their various fire sales that brought in faceless and nameless players in exchange for better known — more expensive players — De La Cruz was supposed to be part of the future of Marlins baseball.

From 2022-2024, De La Cruz hit 50 home runs for the Marlins before being dealt to Pittsburgh during the 2024 season. His combined numbers for 2024 included a career-high in home runs (21), but also a career-high in strikeouts (170). The strikeouts are the price that hitters pay in an attempt to increase their power output.

It wasn’t long before De La Cruz went from being a promising part of a young Miami Marlins team to a guy who had played for three teams in two seasons with what shine there was on his star seeming to fade.

The Marlins dealt him to Pittsburgh, and five months later he signed with Atlanta as a free agent. Just a month into the 2025 season he was released and signed with the New York Yankees, but never played for the Bronx Bombers at the major league level.

As it turns out, his time with the Braves and Yankees, specifically with their Triple-A affiliates in Gwinnett, Georgia, and in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, led him to sign with the Phillies this past winter.

“We saw him in Scranton and Gwinnett,” said Lehigh Valley manager Anthony Contreras. “He has the ability to pull out a 20-home run season. He’s done it before in the big leagues.

“He’s getting pitches he can handle, making some adjustments to getting to the inside pitch quicker. [Hitting coach Adam] Lind and I were just talking about the adjustment with his hands to allow him to get to the inside fastball. He did it in Durham, [where the IronPigs played a series just prior to returning home last week].”

The adjustment was in the angle De La Cruz held the bat. He had developed a habit of keeping the bat almost level just above his shoulder. De La Cruz worked with Raywilly Gomez, the hitting coach for the Toros in the Dominican Winter League where he has played since 2019, and then also worked with IronPigs bench coach Chris Adamson and now has the barrel of the bat more vertical than in the past.

The move helped De La Cruz to be named the MVP of the Dominican Winter League, and he’s hoping that it helps him to get back to the majors, which is a key reason why he signed with Philadelphia early in the offseason.

“When I signed, it was good for me. I wanted to be relaxed and just able to play baseball and not worry about what would be next,” said the 29-year-old, who wound up being one of the final cuts from Phillies camp, which left him as a member of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. “They were looking for a right-handed power guy, and that’s a role I can help a team with.”

Playing in Spring Training, De La Cruz produced good numbers which made the decision not to bring him north with the team a difficult one. He hit .326/.380/.457 in camp and delivered a home run and five RBIs in 17 games. That hot streak made his 0-for-16 start to the season hard to believe.

Just as quickly as De La Cruz went into the slump, he pulled himself out of it late in the series in Durham. The turnaround began with a two-homer game and continued the next day when he hit another home run. His average has slowly moved up to .196 as the IronPigs go on to St. Paul to play the Saints.

While the weather is going to warm up here, St. Paul is still going to get pretty cold at night, something that the outfielder has not liked about the season so far.

When asked how he liked playing in the Lehigh Valley, De La Cruz replied. “I don’t like it. The fans are great. The park is great, but it’s cold,” he said with a laugh. “I’m from the Dominican; I don’t like the cold. Once it warms up, I will love it here.”

THE OTHER REIGNING MVP ... De La Cruz isn’t the only member of the IronPigs to have recently won an MVP award. Felix Reyes won the MVP honors for the Eastern League last season, and is finding hitting in the International League to be to his liking. Reyes has a current 10-game hitting streak, and is batting .311/.328/.541 with three home runs, nine RBIs, and eight runs scored. Reyes has played six games in left field, and five at first base, and has not committed an error this year.

WHEELER TO READING ... Phillies ace Zack Wheeler is on a minor league rehab assignment and chose to pitch for Lehigh Valley in the first two starts. His theory was that he wanted to pitch to better competition. Now, Wheeler is to the point of fine-tuning some things as he prepares to return to the majors, so he will pitch for Reading in his next two starts. He will start this week in Somerset, the Double-A affiliate of the Yankees. If he does make another start, it would be in Reading next week against New Hampshire, the Blue Jays Double-A affiliate.

START ME UP ... Lehigh Valley has found some good pitching in the early going, but none as good as Connor Gillispie and Alan Rangel. With the depth needed at the starting pitching position, the fact that Gillispie has made three starts and not allowed a run in 13.1 innings with three walks and 15 strikeouts is promising. Meanwhile, Rangel has thrown 16.2 innings in three starts with a 1.08 ERA. He walked six and struck out 13. As a team, Lehigh Valley has a 4.37 ERA and ranks second behind Jacksonville (Marlins) in all of Triple-A baseball with 162 strikeouts.