Cincinnati Reds prospect Matt McLain has been on an absolute tear in 2023 with Triple-A Louisville. Last week was just more of that, plus a little extra. McLain won the International League Player of the Week for his efforts in Omaha against the Storm Chasers.
When the Bats headed out to Omaha to begin their series last week, Matt McLain was hitting .312/.444/.602. Those are MVP level numbers. But it was mundane compared to what the Reds prospect was about to do.
Over the six game series, Matt McLain went 11-25 – that’s a .440 batting average. Of his 11 hits he had four doubles, a triple, and two home runs. That was good for a .920 slugging percentage. He also walked twice and was hit by a pitch, which gave him a .483 on-base percentage for the week. In total, that all added up to an OPS of 1.403. And just to add something in for good measure, McLain had 11 RBI in that span while striking out just three times.
Among the prospects in the farm system, Matt McLain’s at or near the top of the guys who have boosted their stock early on. He’s hitting .339/.451/.670 on the season with 22 walks and 29 strikeouts. While he was a Top 10 prospect in the organization entering the season he was coming off of a campaign in 2022 where he struggled to hit for average and his strikeout rate was much higher than you would have expected it to be based on his past results.
This season his strikeout rate is down significantly, his walk rate has remained elite, and his power output has gone from very good to elite. Aside from his stolen base rate being down – he’s gotten better across the board on offense and in most cases, in big ways.
McLain, along with several of his Bats teammates, are trying kick down the door to get to Cincinnati. Watching the Louisville offense over the last few weeks since getting Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Elly De La Cruz into the lineup to go along with McLain, Chuckie Robinson (1.082 OPS), TJ Hopkins (.976 OPS), and at times Jhonny Pereda (.976 OPS in 10 games) has been a real fun thing to see.
Here are the other Players of the Week this season from the farm system:
- Andrew Abbott – Southern League – April 10-16
- Blake Dunn – Midwest League – April 24-30
- Noelvi Marte – Southern League – May 1-7
- Matt McLain – International League – May 1-7