Red Reposter – Matt McLain to play in Arizona Fall League

Wednesday links!

Matt McLain needed only 89 games to produce 3.7 bWAR during his brilliant rookie campaign in 2023. The sad part, though, is that those 89 games didn’t get in from a nebulous call-up day through the end of the season.

Rather, his season ended on just August 27th due to an injured oblique, an injury that lingered (and recurred) as the 2024 season approached. As that issue was continuing to plague him in Goodyear during spring training, he (and we) later discovered he needed surgery in his left shoulder to address cartilage and labrum damage.

McLain did not play a professional game at any level during the 2024 season, meaning it’s now been 13.5 months since he swung a bat in such a scenario. On top of that, it remains to be seen if the swing adjustments and power surge we saw from him during that breakout 2023 run at the big league level was actually behind the oblique and shoulder issues, and if getting a ‘healthy’ McLain back actually means the more contact-oriented, less powerful version we knew prior to said surge.

The first chance we’ll get to evaluate that will fortunately come soon. Yesterday we discovered that McLain’s name has been added to the Glendale Desert Dogs roster in the Arizona Fall League, where he’ll get six-ish weeks to ply his trade with some of the brightest young players in the game.

That makes nine Reds who’ll be participating in AFL play this year, though it’s a group that’s much different than normal. Usually, the AFL is a showcase for some of the brightest prospects within a franchise, though this time around the Reds are seemingly using it as a way to get some of their oft-injured young big leaguers a chance to shake off the rust after lost 2023 campaigns. Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Connor Phillips, for instance, fall into this category along with McLain.

In other news, MLB Trade Rumors released their estimates for arbitration-eligible player salaries for the 2025 season, and the Reds in particular will have some very interesting decisions to make. MLBTR points out that Cincinnati has 10 current players on their roster who’ll be arb-eligible this winter in various stages of their progression towards free agency, and estimates that lot to earn a combined $32.9 million.

The highest number of that group? That would be Ty France, who is estimated to garner a raise to $8.6 million in this, his third and final trip through the arbitration process. France ended his brief stint as a Red mired in a slump, but had some bright moments after being traded to Cincinnati from Seattle before that. Still, he posted just a .683 OPS in 195 PA with the Reds after just a .662 OPS with the Mariners in 340 PA, and it’s really hard to see the Reds tendering him a contract at that rate just to be a bench bat.

Finally, Nick Martinez was named National League Pitcher of the Month for September, an honor he rightfully deserved.

After paying Martinez $14 million for the 2024 season, the Reds will watch as Martinez decides on a $12 million option for the 2025 season at the conclusion of the 2024 World Series. That decision seems to be pretty obvious at the moment, however, as Martinez will almost certainly get a significant raise on that 2025 salary as part of a larger guaranteed deal in free agency this winter once opting out. The only question that really remains is whether the Reds will have the guts to gamble on a Qualifying Offer to Nick after he opts out so that they’d receive some draft pick compensation if he signs elsewhere.

Congrats on the well-earned award, Nick, as well as a well-earned contract from a larger spending team this winter.