The Reds floated a preliminary extension framework to Matt McLain before Opening Day, reports Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer. Talks didn’t get far, as the 25-year-old infielder told Wittenmyer that the numbers “just didn’t line up” with what his camp was seeking.
McLain missed all of last season recovering from shoulder surgery. The former first-round pick tore the labrum and damaged cartilage in his left (non-throwing) shoulder during Spring Training 2024. He was targeting an August return but suffered a stress reaction in his ribcage a week before he would have begun a minor league rehab stint. Cincinnati decided it wasn’t worth pushing him to get back in September, as it had become clear they weren’t going to make the playoffs.
It was an unfortunate follow-up after McLain’s strong rookie season. The righty-hitting infielder finished fifth in NL Rookie of the Year balloting back in 2023. He hit .290/.357/.507 with 16 homers and 14 steals across 403 plate appearances. He’s a potential All-Star second baseman if healthy. Last year’s injury could have made it difficult to align on an extension, though. It adds some risk to the long-term profile, but McLain presumably would not want to feel like he’s negotiating at a low point in his value. He told Wittenmyer there are no conversations ongoing while pointing out that he didn’t play last season.
There’s plenty of time for the teams to reengage down the line. McLain has yet to reach two years of service time. He should qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player next offseason. He’ll go through the arbitration process four times and is not slated to hit free agency until the 2029-30 offseason. McLain is on track to get to free agency in advance of his age-30 season. He has connected on three homers in the early going this season, though he has also punched out in 11 of his 30 trips to the plate.
The Reds did get one extension done this spring, retaining backup catcher Jose Trevino on a two-year deal with $11MM in new money. General manager Brad Meador tells Wittenmyer the team has had “very preliminary and early” extension conversations with a number of players. It doesn’t seem anything has gotten close. Extensions are most common during Spring Training, but a lot of those discussions have carried beyond Opening Day around the league. Brandon Pfaadt, Garrett Crochet, Jackson Merrill, Kristian Campbell and Ketel Marte have all signed extensions within the past eight days.
His camp is Scott Boras. I’m sure it didn’t line up to the $400m Boras was seeking lol.
Unfortunately any client of Bora$ is lost to a small market team
He changed agents before the season started and is now represented by Vayner Baseball.
Per Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.
Cincyfan85;
He had a great rookie year It’s not his fault he was injured last year (and the cheap Reds paid his medical bills as well as his salary).
So while clearly the man is worth $3o0 million-plus on an extended contract, he might be willing to settle for $250 million….but those darn cheap Reds.
Your pretty free spending with other people’s money. 16 home runs isn’t worth 300 mill by the way. And as this 4 games 2 runs prove, nobody on this team is a “clutch” hitter. The timing of your hits means something
One club owner that’s stupid enough to pay on possibility deserves to lose his a$$. Some day they’ll learn to pay these .240 hitters what a 240 hitter is worth. Pay by production. You reach a goal during the year, you get more money. You don’t reach it, you get what you earn.
Cheap Reds? You want a small market team? Live with small market budget.
If he has a down year I’m sure he’ll change his mind.
…..and so will the Reds
Ha no they won’t. Cincy loves dumpster diving and bargain bin signings.
It’s his career. If he wants to gamble and bet on himself, good luck. Personally, most of us would take the guaranteed fortune, but it’s also reasonable to look at the pot of gold at the end of rainbow that is free agency and think it’s worth it.
It’s the Reds. They probably offered 12/$30M hoping the injuries scared him stupid. Guess they didn’t. 🤣🤣🤣
Wait you can post emojis now?? Rumors never allowed it
You have no idea what he was offerd if anything..nowhere in this artivle does. It say he was actually offerd a cent..so what guarantee exactly??
@poolhall
Isn’t that what this site is for? A place where people who don’t know jack spout off with great certainty.
I think the Reds need to increase their offer, and make it happen. It’s the only way small market teams can compete against the mega-deals of the big spenders. I’d bet it will pay off. McLain looked very impressive in the little that I saw of him.
He’s the best SS on the team..
Slider33, That doesn’t surprise me.
Yeah, no. Elly is a perennial All-Star with amazing range and a cannon for an arm.
He plays 2b
He s better in the field than Elly. He is playing out of position. That’s why he ‘s the best SS on the team. That’s what he meant!
I tend to agree on that but EDLC won’t be moved off SS until he signs elsewhere or is traded. Then again, if McLain plays SS, he is probably injured even more often…
It is early in the season, but based on what I have seen thus far, I would be reluctant to offer any of the position players a high value, long term contract. They haven’t shown they can consistently handle ML pitching. I would let them all play out their contracts and concentrate on drafting and trading with great precision. They need to draft more quality position players in the immediate future and concentrate on developing them. Let’s hope the hitting drought is short term. If not, the team is in trouble..
Alan Horn,
“They need to draft more quality position players…”
Are you saying they haven’t been trying to draft the best quality players available? First of all, teams don’t draft by position or need. They draft, who in their analysis, is the best overall player, whether that’s a pitcher, or position player.
It’s easy to say teams need to draft better, but it’s not that easy. The draft is mostly just a crapshoot. You don’t think the Phillies and Astros did all the research, and due diligence before drafting guys like Moniak, Appel, and Aiken 1/1?
If McLain turns in to a perennial AS, he’s gone when he reaches free-agency. The only way a team like the Reds retains talent like McLain is to extend them early in their careers.
McLain can’t stay on the field. Before the Reds jump and pay him a huge contract, that hurdle needs to be figured out.. The Reds have drafted well as far as pitchers who are higher risk draftees but have failed to hit on or draft any top outfield prospects lately.. Drafting a half dozen shortstops or more is not balance. At the top of the draft do you always draft the best pitching prospect or mix it up with the best position player prospects (not all shortstops)? Then again, the problem (and there is a problem) might be position player development. The near future will likely answer those concerns one way or another. I have always believed you win with pitching and defense. That doesn’t mean you can win with little to no offense. Again, that may be because you can’t keep certain position players healthy and on the field. Whatever the cause, failure is failure.
I can understand why you’d think otherwise, but in the first five rounds of all the drafts since 2018, the Reds have only taken 2 shortstops that are still playing that position – Sammy Stafura (Rd 4, ‘23) and Tyson Lewis (Rd ‘24), both of whom were high school draftees and whose ultimate position remains to be seen.
McLain and Rece Hinds were drafted as shortstops, but have already changed positions.
The apparent pileup of minor league shortstops less about the draft and more about lucking out with the Elly De La Cruz signing and getting Edwin Arroyo in the Luis Castillo trade.
In the end, there are worse problems to have than “too many shortstops.”
Can’t stay on the field is a ridiculous take for a guy that got injured in his rookie season, needed surgery, and whose return was slowed played by club, because they didn’t need him, being out of it when he was ready to return in 2024. One injury, no matter how major is nowhere near not being able to stay on the field. That criticism should be reserved for guys with chronic injuries, over multiple seasons.
The whole point of signing guys to early extensions is to avoid the huge contract. As shown by the numerous extensions already done this year, they’re a compromise between team, and player. The player has the chance to sign a much bigger contract if they reach free-agency and perform. The team has potential All-Stars on a discount if that happens.
Teams do not draft for need. There is some positional drafting between pitching and position. The increase in injury potential for pitchers is greater, and a large pool to develop guys from needs to be bigger. But nothing wrong with drafting 6 SSs, because if they can play short, they can play anywhere on the field except catcher.
The Giants are slammed for not developing an AS outfielder since Chili Davis. But they won 3 WS titles by developing pitchers, and focusing more on catcher and the IF than the OF. The OF is the easiest to supplement externally. The Giants were able to win playing guys like Nate Schierholtz, Andres Torres, and Gregor Blanco, with only Schierholtz homegrown. Their best OF performers were Hunter Pence, Angel Pagan, Mike Morse, and Pat Burrell. none of which were developed by SF.
So we agree that pitching and defense is the way to win, and that teams do need to hit somewhat. So when you have a guy with big upside like McLain you try to keep him.
McLain is out yet again with injury at the current time. All I am saying is the Reds shouldn’t jump and pay out a ton of money on him until they get a better red on his durability. They have already made two terrible mistakes signing Moose and Candelaria.. When you pay a player that much money and they don’t produce whether it is via injury or otherwise, it is hard to overcome for a small market team.
I hope I don’t have to add Martinez to the over paid player list.. Hind sight is 20/20 but one would have to think with all the bad contracts they could have instead signed a high cost productive outfielder. Hayes is sitting on the DL as well. It is hard to win when a third of your starting lineup is on the DL. As I have said many times, the Reds have entirely too many injuries year after year.
The problem with waiting to see how he does, is the price goes up the longer you wait. Extending guys early saves money. Important for a team like the Reds that have limited spending ability. That’s why the Brewers extended Chourio before he played a ML game. The Braves got bargains with Albies and Acuna. And even though Acuna has been injured a lot, I guarantee they’d extend him if they had a redo.
Apples and Oranges. Moose and Candelario were FA signings. That’s totally different. Guys that sign FA contracts are all overpaid compared to those under team control
I’d guess every early extension isn’t for a ton of money. It may seem like a lot, but it’s far cheaper than waiting until he gets close to free-agency. The point of extending guys that are under team control early is for the bargain.
If Jackson Merrill lives up to his potential SD will be paying him far below market value. It’s why The RSox want to extend Kristian Campbell, after he’s played less than 10 games at the ML level. If the Reds don’t take a chance on McLain early, they’ll lose out.
Again Martinez wasn’t an early extension. You can’t compare guys under team control that a team would like to extend to a FA signing. The two aren’t comparable.
It is a bad situation. Yes, waiting to see if he can stay healthy and produce will cost more, but only if he does well. The other side of the coin is much like Moose and Candy. You pay a ton of money relatively long term and they fail to produce or stay healthy. You read the tea leaves on McLain and the tea leaves say he hasn’t been able to stay on the field. Yes, waiting will cost you money, but only if he produces and is able to stay on the field. The other side is fools gold right now. Signing him now is a huge gamble and the Reds have been losing most of those lately..
They are comparable to all that matters. The Red’s bottom line financially and production wise. Losing your rear end is the same whether it’s either of the two. Both severely hamstring your team.
They aren’t comparable at all. You can’t compare guys under team control to FAs. It makes no sense. FAs are always overpaid due to competition on the open market.
Look at Julio Rodriquez and Juan Soto. In his first 464 games Soto had a 17.7 bWAR. Rodriquez has played only 440 games in his career, and has a bWAR of 16.5. Soto will be paid about $50M a year for the remainder of his contract. Rodriquez will be paid about $20M.
The difference is that Soto was a FA on the open market, and Rodriquez was an extension. The M’s are like the Reds without a huge operating budget. But the M’s locked down an AS player for far below what he would have gotten had he gone to free-agency. So, no, they aren’t comparable.
Truth
Yeah, his camp clearly saw through the Reds attempt to lowball him an offer due to his injury.
He’s already accrued 0.5 bWAR, he’s betting on being healthy and having great season. Good on him for not going for the first offer from the Reds.
Screw that. He can bet on himself if he wants. Probably has an insurance policy out on himself.
The guy is from SoCal, so I’m sure he can’t wait to get outta town. He wishes he could be in his brother’s shoes….
Nick McLain is in the White Sox organization, so I doubt it.
The other brother….
Never saw the other brother play, but then again, I don’t bird dog out west.
(At least they didn’t name them both Daryl)
What kinda leverage can a player with half a season in the majors, then missed full yr with injury, have?
Quite possible he has zero interest in playing in Cincinnati after his arbitration years.
If the reds can’t extend him, they will trade him before he becomes a free agent.
Quite possible. They didn’t get one done with Stephenson either. Obvious that is why they went to extend Trevino. They are not paying two guys that kind of money at the same position, it’s not their M.O.
I told you all the players will remember the front office’s lack of support during their 2023 run when their time to leave came and it appears they have.