McLain was bumped down from the No. 2 spot in the lineup for good in August.
He missed the entire 2024 season after having shoulder surgery, and he hasn’t been able to consistently reach the ceiling that he showcased as a rookie in 2023.
“Missing a year-and-a-half with an injury is hard,” hitting coach Chris Valaika said. “The comparison that he has gotten is unfair. He played 90 games (in 2023) and was really good and then had some struggles. A lot of guys struggle in their second years. He has kept his head above water and stayed the course. Hopefully, we end the year even stronger.”
When the Reds called up Sal Stewart on Sept. 1, there was a question about what that would mean for McLain’s playing time. Instead, McLain has had his best stretch of the season.
“We’ve seen flashes through the year of some success,” Valaika said. “It’s been nice to see a bit more sustained success over the last month. Nothing really different on our end. We’ve been working through the same things.”
De La Cruz was an MVP candidate through the first half of the season, but he hasn’t hit for power since the start of July and has been through an alarming home run drought. While his statline for the season looks similar to what he posted in 2024, he hasn’t taken the big leap that many expected from the 23-year-old. “If you turn the baseball card over at the end of the day, he has an .800 OPS, 19 homers — he’ll get to 20+ over the rest of the season — close to 100 RBI,” Valaika said. “That’s a pretty good season. He’s just in a lull right now. It’s how he gets out of it. He has still been productive and is helping us win games.”
De La Cruz has faced a few different challenges. The Reds haven’t had consistent production out of the cleanup spot, so pitchers are able to pitch around De La Cruz. Also, he has been battling a quad injury all summer. He was dropped from third to seventh in the lineup on Monday.
“There’s always going to be someone in the lineup where they circle his name,” Valaika said. “Him dealing with some of that (quad) injury is not letting him get as much into his legs as he has in the past. The way he has been pitched, he’s seeing one of the fewest numbers of fastballs since the All-Star break. I don’t think he has been getting a ton to hit.”
While De La Cruz isn’t hitting homers and has seen his strikeouts climb, he has still been hitting solid low line drives and making an impact in the middle of the order.
“When he has been getting his pitches, we’ve been seeing production,” Valaika said. “He’s getting his doubles. He’s getting his triples.”
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