‘It’s coming’: Why Cincinnati Reds Matt McLain, Terry Francona predict slump buster for 2B

Nobody around Matt McLain has seen the Cincinnati Reds second baseman struggle this badly to hit a baseball.

But McLain has.

And, strangely, that’s part of why he feels so sure he’s about to fight his way out of a confounding slump that has lingered into June, been the biggest gut punch to the Reds’ offensive plans so far this season and that led to a second day on the bench in six games as the Reds opened a big series against the division-rival Milwaukee Brewers this week.

“My freshman year at UCLA was tough,” said McLain, who turned down a chance to sign with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a 25th overall draft pick – then hit .203 with a .276 on-base percentage as a teenager without the experience or confidence to fix what broke.

“I was so young. Right out of high school,” he said. “That was different. That was worse than now.

“So I’ve used that in this case.”

Mostly that means he keeps playing, fighting, playing well in the field as one of the Reds’ best defenders, running smart on the bases when he gets there and trying to contribute in ways as small and basic as seeing enough pitches in an at-bat that it might help the next guy.

It may not mean much to Reds fans tired of watching the .175 hitting and 31% strikeout rate.

But the approach (and fielding ability) has helped keep him in the lineup most days, even as he was dropped from second in the order to ninth, even during a 1-for-18 stretch to finish the recent road trip.

“He plays the game. His emotions never change,” manager Terry Francona said. “I fall back on, he’s a good player.

“He’s going to get hot. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet, but it will.”

McLain, 25, talks just as confidently about where his season is headed.

That short swing with pop that made him the Reds’ best player in 2023 after he broke in mid-May suggests they might be right, especially given some of the peripheral stats that show a hard-contact rate even slightly better than his rookie year and a higher walk rate.

But for now, two facts are indisputable:

One, McLain has played just 140 big-league games in his life after missing all of last season with a shoulder injury, a small enough sample to suggest nobody can be sure what direction he goes from here – or at least how long it might take him to regain productive form.

Two, his extended slump as a key part of the Reds’ plans and optimism coming into the season has been a drag on a lineup that has been wildly inconsistent this season, including having been shut out nine times (tied with Pirates for most in NL).

“We’re always watching and trying to do the best we can for everybody,” Francona said. “That’s why we’re here.

“The way he plays second base certainly helps,” added the manager, who also gave McLain a mental blow Tuesday in Kansas City. “You just try to do what’s right, man.”

If there’s one more indisputable fact, it’s that McLain doesn’t short the team on work ethic as he tries to find himself at the plate again.

He also doesn’t try to blame all that time away from the game rehabbing his surgically repaired shoulder last year.

“I think it has something to do with it. But I don’t like using that excuse,” he said. “Because if you were to ask me to start the year, everyone would have been, like, ‘No.’ “

In fact, team officials looked at McLain’s health in the fall and his performance this spring and expressed confidence that his return amounted to an off-season acquisition.

“Obviously, McLain is a huge part of this, and if he’s healthy, that’s probably as big an impact as you could hope for,” general manager Brad Meador said near the end of spring training.

After all, this is a hitter drafted 17th overall out of UCLA by the Reds in 2021, 10 spots ahead of Jackson Merrill, and who was not only their best hitter in 2023 (.290, .864 OPS in a three-month debut) but he also was their best shortstop that season.

“Sometimes you just struggle,” said McLain, who draws encouragement from the peripherals and stays focused on his approach as he struggles get back to where he was as a rookie.

“Just trying to be more aggressive to my pitch earlier in the counts and when I do swing make contact,” he said. “We’ve done the whole swing (analysis). It’s similar.”

If there’s a specific part about missing all of last year that McLain says might have made a difference, it’s the feel. Just the value of getting back on the field at all, even if just for the final week or two of the season.

“You do forget what it’s like to go out there every single day and get after it,” he said. “It’s fun. I love it. But last year I’m like, ‘Dang, I wish I could have come back and played the last month to just feel that. And take it into this year.”

He does say that after two months of being back on the field this year, he feels signs of Francona’s vision for a breakout.