Matt McLain is doing something this spring that no one in baseball can match. Through 14 Cactus League games, the Reds' second baseman is slashing .607/.667/1.179 with seven home runs and just two strikeouts. Those numbers lead all of Major League Baseball — not just the Reds, not just the National League, but every player in every camp across the sport.
After a 2025 season that saw him hit just .220 with a .643 OPS — a year removed from the shoulder surgery that wiped out his entire 2024 campaign — McLain has answered every question about his future with the most dominant spring performance in recent Reds memory. His seventh homer came on March 21 in the Reds' 8-6 win over the Cubs, and at this point the coaching staff has seen more than enough.
What Went Wrong in 2025
Context matters here. McLain's 2025 was never supposed to be a referendum on his ability. The shoulder surgery that cost him the entire 2024 season required months of rehab, and returning to face major league pitching after that long away from competitive baseball was always going to be an adjustment. His swing felt different. His timing was off. The power that made him a revelation as a rookie in 2023 disappeared entirely.
Reds fans watched nervously as McLain fought through the season, posting numbers that looked nothing like the player who had burst onto the scene two years earlier. The question wasn't whether he had talent — everyone knew that — but whether the surgery had permanently altered his swing mechanics or sapped his bat speed.
The Answer Is Emphatic
This spring has put those fears to rest. McLain's bat speed is back. His power is back. And perhaps most impressively, his plate discipline has reached an elite level — just two strikeouts in 14 games is an extraordinary contact rate that suggests a hitter who is completely locked in and seeing the ball with exceptional clarity.
The Reds have slotted McLain into the No. 2 hole in the lineup, right behind leadoff man TJ Friedl and directly in front of Elly De La Cruz. That's a high-leverage spot that demands both on-base ability and the capacity to drive the ball, and McLain has delivered on both fronts with historic production.
Fantasy baseball analysts have taken notice too. McLain has become one of the biggest ADP risers in 2026 drafts, with his spring performance shifting him from a late-round gamble to a legitimate mid-round target. The consensus is building: the real Matt McLain is the 2023 version, not the 2025 one.
What It Means for the Lineup
If McLain carries even a fraction of this spring's production into the regular season, the Reds' lineup becomes significantly more dangerous. A healthy McLain hitting second, with De La Cruz third and Eugenio Suárez fourth, gives Cincinnati one of the most potent 2-3-4 combinations in the National League. Add Sal Stewart's emerging bat at first base, and this is a lineup with no easy outs in the middle of the order.
Spring training stats deserve their usual caveats — smaller sample sizes, uneven competition, pitchers still finding their command. But the eye test matches the numbers here, and that's what makes McLain's spring so compelling. He doesn't look like a player getting lucky. He looks like a player who has fully recovered from a career-threatening injury and found another gear. The Reds are betting he's the real deal. Based on what we've seen in March, that bet looks better every day.
