{"id":100664,"date":"2025-05-21T15:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T19:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=100664"},"modified":"2025-05-21T15:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T19:49:09","slug":"what-is-up-with-matt-mclain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/21\/what-is-up-with-matt-mclain\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Up With Matt McLain?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After missing the entirely of the 2024 season due to a shoulder injury, 25 year-old Matt McLain<\/a> looked to make a grand return to the field to build off of an impressive rookie 2023 season.<\/p>\n

Despite a hot first week of the season, McLain has cooled down considerably, currently hitting under the Mendoza line, looking as lost as ever at the plate.<\/p>\n

McLain\u2019s Rookie Season<\/h3>\n

McLain broke out in a big way in 2023, slashing .290\/.357\/.507 for an .864 OPS and 127 OPS+ in 89 games. He struggled a bit with swing and misses, with a 28.5 K% (16th percentile) and a 28.0 Whiff% (35th percentile). However, he did display impressive plate discipline, with a 7.7 BB% (39th percentile) and a 25.4 Chase% (72nd percentile).<\/p>\n

He split time between shortstop and second base, accumulating 3 OAA (92nd percentile), making him one of the best middle infielders in the league defensively.<\/p>\n

All around, he had a complete season, even tagging along 14 stolen bases to pair with his 16 home runs, posing as a real power speed threat in the heart of Cincinnati\u2019s<\/a> lineup.<\/p>\n

McLain\u2019s 2025 Struggles<\/h3>\n

After a 0-for-5 Opening Day, McLain homered in three consecutive games with five RBI. He slashed .300\/.364\/.800 for a 1.164 OPS in 22 plate appearances in the first five games of the year, providing the Reds lineup with some much-needed offensive impact.<\/p>\n

However, his current slash line is far from what it was at the beginning of the year, as he\u2019s currently slashing .176\/.289\/.318 for a .607 OPS and 66 OPS+. He\u2019s struggling more than ever with swings and misses, with a gaudy 32.8 K% (3rd percentile) and a 30.9 Whiff% (14th percentile). He is, however, walking at a 12.1% clip (81st percentile) while chasing only 24.7% of pitches out of the zone (67th percentile), meaning he isn\u2019t chasing, but is whiffing on pitches inside the strike zone.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s looked as lost as ever at the plate lately, as he\u2019s just 2 for his last 16 with nine strikeouts and zero walks.<\/p>\n

On a more encouraging note, his speed and defense have not betrayed him like his bat has to begin the year, as he has 3 OAA (92nd percentile) at second base and 10 stolen bases. His baseline as a player will always be a solid defender and baserunner, but Cincinnati<\/a> expects much better production than that. His relatively small track record shows he can perform at a much higher level, and the season is still young.<\/p>\n

McLain\u2019s Expectations<\/h3>\n

Hopes are that McLain can turn it around and turn it around quickly if he and the Reds want any part of a successful season where they aren\u2019t hovering around .500. With guys like Will Benson, Rece Hinds, and Gavin Lux currently on a heater, it has taken some pressure off of McLain.<\/p>\n

However, McLain has to be better for the Reds to succeed, as they\u2019re already a team lacking infield depth.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After missing the entirely of the 2024 season due to a shoulder injury, 25 year-old Matt McLain looked to make a grand return to the field to build off of an impressive rookie 2023 season. Despite a hot first week of the season, McLain has cooled down considerably, currently hitting under the Mendoza line, looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5447,"featured_media":100728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1071],"tags":[4783],"class_list":["post-100664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reds","category-mlb","tag-matt-mclain"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5447"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100664"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100730,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100664\/revisions\/100730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}