Matt McLain

Matt McLain

25-Year-Old Second Baseman2B
Cincinnati Reds
2025 Fantasy Outlook
McLain was forced under the knife in late March to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder and never made it on to a big-league field in 2024. He appeared to be nearing a rehab assignment in August, but a stress reaction in his rib cage took a return off the table. The 25-year-old was able to make up for lost time a bit in the Arizona Fall League, where he slashed .240/.356/.520 with four homers, 12 RBI and one stolen base across 59 plate appearances. Durability has become a major question mark after he also missed the final month of his rookie season in 2023 with an oblique strain. However, McLain still appears to be a priority for the Reds, likely in center field after the team acquired Gavin Lux to play second base. While projecting a full season's worth of at-bats would be foolish entering 2025, McLain has shown an intriguing power/speed combo when on the diamond, and the boost provided by Great American Ball Park is no small one. Don't forget about him at the draft table. Read Past Outlooks
RANKS
Rest of Season From Preseason
#80
ADP
$Signed a one-year contract with the Reds in March of 2025.
Goes yard in win
2BCincinnati Reds
May 15, 2025
McLain went 2-for-3 with a solo home run, a double and an additional run scored during Thursday's 7-1 win over the White Sox.
ANALYSIS
McLain got off to a slow start to 2025, slashing .160/.282/.290 across his first 100 at-bats spanning 28 games, but the 25-year-old seems to be turning a corner. In nine games since, McLain is 8-for-32 (.250) with a pair of home runs, six runs scored and four stolen bases. He's up to six homers on the season.
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Batting Stats
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2025
2024
2023
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2024 MLB Game Log
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2023 MLB Game Log
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Batting Order Slot Breakdown
vs Right-Handed Pitchers
vs RHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
22
1
vs Left-Handed Pitchers
vs LHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
3
6
1
Left/Right Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+24%
OPS vs LHP
2025
 
 
+32%
OPS vs LHP
2024
No Stats
2023
 
 
+21%
OPS vs LHP
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023vs Left .930 137 20 8 23 11 .295 .372 .557
Since 2023vs Right .749 419 65 13 42 13 .247 .330 .419
2025vs Left .733 36 3 2 6 6 .200 .333 .400
2025vs Right .557 117 17 3 9 4 .162 .284 .273
2024vs Left 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2024vs Right 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2023vs Left .995 101 17 6 17 5 .326 .386 .609
2023vs Right .820 302 48 10 33 9 .278 .348 .473
More Splits View More Split Stats
Minor League Splits View Minor League Split Stats
Home/Away Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+26%
OPS at Home
2025
 
 
+39%
OPS at Home
2024
No Stats
2023
 
 
+26%
OPS at Home
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023Home .895 257 43 13 34 10 .278 .362 .533
Since 2023Away .708 299 42 8 31 14 .243 .322 .386
2025Home .695 76 11 3 8 5 .212 .316 .379
2025Away .499 77 9 2 7 5 .127 .276 .222
2024Home 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2024Away 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2023Home .977 181 32 10 26 5 .304 .381 .596
2023Away .774 222 33 6 24 9 .279 .338 .436
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Stat Review
How does Matt McLain compare to other hitters?
This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
  • BB/K
    Walk to strikeout ratio
  • BB Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
  • K Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
  • BABIP
    Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
  • ISO
    Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
  • AVG
    Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
  • OBP
    On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
  • SLG
    Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
  • OPS
    On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
  • wOBA
    Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
  • Exit Velocity
    The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
  • Hard Hit Rate
    A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
  • Barrels/PA
    The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
  • Expected BA
    Expected Batting Average.
  • Expected SLG
    Expected Slugging Percentage.
  • Sprint Speed
    The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
  • Ground Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
  • Line Drive %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
  • Fly Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.
BB/K
0.42
 
BB Rate
13.1%
 
K Rate
31.4%
 
BABIP
.224
 
ISO
.132
 
AVG
.171
 
OBP
.296
 
SLG
.302
 
OPS
.598
 
wOBA
.279
 
Exit Velocity
90.3 mph
 
Hard Hit Rate
41.5%
 
Barrels/PA
5.9%
 
Expected BA
.202
 
Expected SLG
.385
 
Sprint Speed
24.7 ft/sec
 
Ground Ball %
35.8%
 
Line Drive %
16.0%
 
Fly Ball %
48.1%
 
Prospect Rankings History
Advanced Batting Stats
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Additional Stats
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Defensive Stats
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Batted Ball Stats
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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers
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Past Fantasy Outlooks
2024
2023
2022
McLain showed the makings of an incredibly well-rounded player in 89 games as a rookie before an oblique injury ended his season at the end of August. Following his mid-May call-up, McLain slashed .290/.357/.507 with 16 home runs and 14 steals in 19 attempts, briefly putting himself in the Rookie of the Year conversation alongside Corbin Carroll. Statcast throws some cold water on his debut, saying he overperformed his batting average by 35 points (.255 xBA) and his slugging by a whopping 72 points (.435 xSLG). His strikeout and walk rates leave something to be desired (28.5 K%, 7.7 BB%), but McLain showed better plate skills in the minors and should put more balls in play moving forward at the super-hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park. Despite the caveats, the Reds have to be excited about what the 2021 first-round pick showed in his first exposure to big-league pitching. McLain is also a plus defender and enters 2024 with eligibility at both shortstop and second base.
McLain hit seven homers and stole seven bases while hitting .271 in his first 23 games at Double-A. From there, he hit .217 with 10 home runs and 20 steals, and his elevated strikeout rate and elevated walk rate remained stable. The generously-listed 5-foot-11 middle infielder (likely to end up at second base) didn't chase at an alarming clip, but he also didn't swing enough at pitches in the zone, and when he did swing, he was taking mighty hacks and making contact at a poor 65.8% clip. The hope with McLain when the Reds selected him with the 17th overall pick in 2021 was that he would have at least an above-average hit tool with plus speed and sneaky power. Unfortunately, it seems like McLain is trying to be a three-true outcome hitter without possessing plus raw power, and he is less appealing in fantasy because of it. The Reds now have an abundance of infield prospect depth, and McLain doesn't rank among the best of the bunch.
The Reds gave McLain the ninth-largest bonus in the 2021 draft ($4.625 million) after selecting him with the 17th-overall pick. His hit tool and plus speed are the top selling points, but he has sneaky pop as well. He hit .333/.434/.579 with nine home runs, nine steals (on 10 attempts) and a 34:34 K:BB in 47 games as a junior at UCLA. McLain was one of three first-round hitters to get tested with an assignment to High-A (Henry Davis and Sal Frelick were the others), and he handled himself quite well, logging a .273/.387/.424 slash line (127 wRC+), 20.2 K% and 14.3 BB%. He also stole 10 bases on 12 tries in 29 games. If the hit tool is as good as it seems, McClain's defensive versatility -- he can handle all three up-the-middle positions -- and plus speed will allow him to play almost every day and chip in around 20 steals. His eventual power output is TBD, but he could become a 15-20 homer threat, potentially settling in as a valuable five-category contributor with multi-position eligibility.
More Fantasy News
Batting eighth Tuesday
2BCincinnati Reds
May 13, 2025
McLain will start at second base and bat eighth in Tuesday's game versus the White Sox.
ANALYSIS
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Breaks homer drought Saturday
2BCincinnati Reds
May 10, 2025
McLain went 1-for-3 with a stolen base, two-run home run and two additional runs scored in Saturday's 13-9 win over the Astros.
ANALYSIS
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Swipes ninth bag
2BCincinnati Reds
May 9, 2025
McLain went 1-for-5 with a stolen base in Thursday's 5-4 extra-innings loss to Atlanta.
ANALYSIS
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Swipes bag Sunday
2BCincinnati Reds
May 5, 2025
McLain went 1-for-3 with a walk and a steal in Sunday's loss to the Nationals.
ANALYSIS
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Snaps hitless run
2BCincinnati Reds
April 29, 2025
McLain went 1-for-4 with a stolen base in Monday's 3-1 win over the Cardinals.
ANALYSIS
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Latest Fantasy Rumors
Turned down extension offer
2BCincinnati Reds
May 15, 2025
According to Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer, McLain turned down a contract offer from the Reds during the spring but remains open to extension talks.
ANALYSIS
The 25-year-old's move away from Scott Boras as his agent in March fueled speculation of a potential extension, but McLain didn't show much interest in the initial framework offered up by Cincinnati. The second baseman is in a bit of a weird spot, as he had a breakout rookie campaign in 2023 with 16 homers, 14 steals and an .864 OPS in 89 games, but he was sidelined for the entirety of last season due to a shoulder injury. McLain likely wants to build his value back up a bit in 2025 before considering an extension, though he's off to a slow start with a .171/.296/.302 slash line and 31.4 percent strikeout rate through 35 games. As Super 2 player, McLain will be arbitration eligible for the first time in 2026 and is poised for a significant raise from his $770,000 salary this year.
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