In Edwin Arroyo Cincinnati Reds fans trust
· Yahoo Sports
For many Cincinnati Reds fans, the breakout we saw during Matt McLain’s half-season of excellence in 2023 still resonates quite loudly. It’s hard not to, really – he was a 1st round pick of the club and during his first shot at the big leagues looked like he was an immediate success story, posting a 127 OPS+ with both power and speed while manning a premium defensive position.
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In many ways, he was emblematic of a time when it looked – if you squinted a bit – like the Reds knew exactly what they were doing, and it was beginning to pay off in spades.
Things went south quickly, however. That 2023 season was cut short due to injury. The 2024 season was lost altogether due to injury(s). In the two seasons since coming back from major shoulder surgery (and oblique problems likely due to his aggressive swing), McLain has posted just a 75 OPS+ in nearly 900 PA.
He’s also going to turn 27 years old in just a month, and this week the Reds began trying to shoehorn him into playing CF for the first real time since his days at UCLA.
That’s hardly a ringing endorsement of the guy you were supposed to consider the everyday 2B, the player who has been given chance after chance to cement both that role and a role atop the batting order by manager Terry Francona since he arrived on the scene last year. And what we’ve seen lately suggests that the time of McLain as the regular 2B may already be on the outs with prospect Edwin Arroyo gradually settling in there himself.
We asked you this week which of McLain or Arroyo should be given the job as the team’s primary 2B for the rest of the season, and you responded in overwhelming fashion. 82% of you think it should be Arroyo who gets to show what he can do there to build upon the 82 PA of 67 OPS+ work he’s put in so far while getting his feet wet at the big league level.
I don’t think it’s time to write off McLain altogether, at least not yet. He’s been passable against LHP so far this season (.749 OPS) and we know he’s a good defender at both 2B and SS. Heck, if he shows he can figure out how to play a little CF again, too, he’s a wonderful depth piece to have as Francona mixes and matches his lineups and mid-game changes.
However, if the Reds are going to once again stay mired in last place in the division and out of the Wild Card race, it likely behooves the team’s front office to find out what they’ve got in Arroyo as soon as they can, and so far there’s been glimpses that the 22 year old has some chops that may make him a pretty good player for awhile in Cincinnati. If the team’s going to hit a reset button of any size, seeing whether he can cut it as a cornerstone piece now makes a lot more sense than continuing to give an older player another dozen chances to rediscover form.
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