The Matt McLain Renaissance is upon us

The Cincinnati Reds took on the Chicago Cubs for the first time this spring on Monday afternoon, and when the dust settled the back of just about every hitter’s baseball card looked as rosy as could be.

Chief among the batting culprits on the day was one Matt McLain, he of the .220/.300/.343 line in 577 PA during the 2025 season. Now another year removed from his 2024 shoulder/oblique surgery, McLain swatted two more homers during the Reds 17-9 drubbing of their NL Central rivals, and has begun to more and more look the part of the guy who broke out as Cincinnati’s best hitter in 2023 prior to his injury.

The question manager Terry Francona has been asking of his lineup since he came to Cincinnati was who would hit in the #2 spot in the order. McLain, based on his pre-injury work, was precisely the kind of hitter who profiled as Tito’s go-to hitter there, someone who could break up the lefty-heavy top of TJ Friedl and Elly De La Cruz (from his strong side). Last year, it just didn’t work, and McLain found himself dropped to the bottom of the order, his excellent glovework the lone real reason why he didn’t lose more chances later in the season.

From what we’ve seen early on this spring, though, his efforts to get back to the player he was before surgery have paid off in spades. As Charlie Goldsmith noted after the game today, McLain has not only picked up a longer bat with which to attack sliders away from him better, he’s been putting in countless hours of work to protect that part of the plate (and his swing) with both approach and positioning within the box. And if it keeps up at all akin to what we saw today (and within the last week), the Reds will be in a much, much better position to stomach Ke’Bryan Hayes in the lineup everyday as a glove-only guy.

One of those you can have. Two, you cannot.

Monday’s action against the Cubs also featured a Noelvi Marte dinger, another Sal Stewart blast, two-times on-base for Friedl (with a pair of runs scored), a Rece Hinds tater, and a 2-hit, 3-ribbie outing from Hayes that was good enough for me to probably shut up for at least a day or so about his struggles to hit. All that after starter Brady Singer became the latest Reds starter to get shelled in his first outing of the spring, something that’s not at all concerning…just yet.

The Reds will have the day off on Tuesday before taking on Team Cuba on Wednesday in an exhibition for the latter’s ramp up to the upcoming World Baseball Classic. We don’t yet know who will start that game for the Reds, or exactly how we’ll be able to follow it (aside from audio-only on 700 WLW), but we do know first pitch will take place at 3:05 PM ET at Goodyear Ballpark.