The offseason is a time when players will sometimes work on playing other positions. Whether that’s to broaden their versatility or because they simply weren’t good enough at their previous position, or the team simply acquired someone else to play their previous position – there are plenty of reasons for it. Cincinnati, who has a lot of infield options but not nearly as many outfield options, is potentially exploring the idea of Matt McLain moving into the outfield. Today’s Glendale Desert Dogs lineup is out in the Arizona Fall League and McLain is starting in center field. There is almost no way that this isn’t at the request of the Reds, who certainly would have to sign off on McLain playing “out of position”.
Of course, for Matt McLain, it’s not entirely out of position. While as a professional, McLain has only played second base and shortstop since he was drafted in the 1st round back in 2021, as a freshman at UCLA he spent most of the season in center field (50 games out of the 61 he played in). During college summer ball in both 2018 and 2019 he also had some limited action in right field.
With the Bruins he only played in the outfield as a freshman (his other 11 games that season came at third base). In both 2020 and 2021 all 49 of his games in the field were as a shortstop, and as a professional after the draft that’s where a majority of his games were also played.
While we don’t have data for 2024 on Matt McLain’s sprint speed because he missed the entire year with his shoulder and then rib injuries, we can look back at 2023’s data from when he was a rookie. Elly De La Cruz was easily the fastest player on that team. There were a handful of players with a spring speed between 28.8 feet per second and 29.2 feet per second – all considered to be well above-average rates of speed. Matt McLain fell in the middle of that group at 29.0.
It seems clear that he has the speed for the position. And while he is limited a little bit on experience in the outfield, it’s not entirely new to him, either. It’s just been six years since he last played there regularly.
If he continues to play in center for the rest of the Arizona Fall League season, he is only going to get a handful of game action at the position. McLain is on the taxi squad, which means he can only play in two games per week. The regular season in Arizona ends on November 14th and in the best case scenario of winning the championship, there would only be two games added on (each of the two rounds is just a 1-game “series”).
Still, it’s interesting to see that this move is both happening and that for some reason it’s only happening now. Maybe it’s something that won’t matter when spring training rolls around. But perhaps there’s something here that could potentially help solve a problem or two when it comes to building the roster and lineup for 2025.
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