{"id":69193,"date":"2024-03-25T17:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T21:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=69193"},"modified":"2024-03-25T16:44:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T20:44:54","slug":"matt-mclain-reds-injury-update-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/25\/matt-mclain-reds-injury-update-mlb\/","title":{"rendered":"Reds Second Baseman Injury Remains a Mystery, Being Evaluated Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cincinnati Reds <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=bellda01,bell--007dav,bell--006dav&amp;search=David+Bell&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Bell<\/a> said that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mclaima01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt McLain<\/a> will have his shoulder evaluated Monday, Charlie Goldsmith of The Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The Reds are embracing the possibility of another key player being unavailable in time for Opening Day. Bell told reporters last week that all options, including surgery, were being considered by the club on McLain&#8217;s non-throwing shoulder. He reported soreness in his left shoulder following a dive for a ball during a workout.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">David Bell said Matt McLain is being evaluated later today. The 26th man spot may not be decided until Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CharlieG__\/status\/1772341501047001525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Matt McLain Will Not Start the Season on Time<\/h2>\n<p>Bell believes that McLain will open the season on the injured list.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s safe to say he&#8217;s not going to start the year on time,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/matt-mclain-second-opinion-left-shoulder-injury\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bell said<\/a>. &#8220;As far as knowing exactly what that&#8217;s going to look like, it&#8217;s still too early. Until he gets that second opinion, we&#8217;re really not going to know that. We can start planning on not having him to start the year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With the uncertainty surrounding McLain, the Reds didn&#8217;t hesitate to address their infield issue. Cincinnati <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/20\/blue-jays-trade-santiago-espinal-chris-mcelvain\/\" target=\"_self\">went out and acquired<\/a> utility infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/espinsa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santiago Espinal<\/a> from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for minor league pitcher Chirs McElvain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It got done pretty quickly,&#8221; president of baseball operations Nick Krall said. &#8220;Two years ago, [Espinal] was an All-Star. He plays second, short and third. He serves as a real quality utility infielder who can player all over and gives guys days off.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>McLain Showed Plenty of Potential in 2023<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BK, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CliffFloyd30?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@CliffFloyd30<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YonderalonsoU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@YonderalonsoU<\/a> discuss where the Reds stand in the NL Central after reports of Matt McLain seeking a second opinion on his shoulder injury. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MLBTonight?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MLBTonight<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OwJ9ijWUEx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/OwJ9ijWUEx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLBNetwork\/status\/1770979243066785819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>McLain made his major league debut in 2023, making an impact with his potential. He hit a robust .290\/.357\/.507 with 16 home runs, 23 doubles, four triples and 14 stolen bases. He struck out in 28.5% in his trips to plate while walking 7.7% of the time. Despite going into the draft as a shortstop, McLain split time between the two middle infield slots. It shouldn&#8217;t come as a surprise if he focuses on second base with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/delacel01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elly De La Cruz<\/a> taking the share at shortstop. The Reds have a plethora of infield surplus with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/candeje01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jeimer Candelario<\/a>, who <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/12\/07\/reds-sign-jeimer-candelario\/\" target=\"_self\">signed a three-year deal in the offseason<\/a>. An 8-game suspension to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/marteno01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Noelvi Marte<\/a> has made things a little bit sparse and the absence of McLain could depend on how playing time is split around the diamond.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: \u00a9 Kareem Elgazzar\/The Enquirer \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cincinnati Reds David Bell said that Matt McLain will have his shoulder evaluated Monday, Charlie Goldsmith of The Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The Reds are embracing the possibility of another key player being unavailable in time for Opening Day. Bell told reporters last week that all options, including surgery, were being considered by the club on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":69209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[28,1071,35],"tags":[2495,5899,1297,4783,5847,3310,36],"class_list":["post-69193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reds","category-mlb","category-news","tag-david-bell","tag-elly-de-la-cruz","tag-jeimer-candelario","tag-matt-mclain","tag-noelvi-marte","tag-santiago-espinal","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69193","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\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}