2B · 2026
Matt McLain
- Age
- 27
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 5' 8"
- Weight
- 180 lb
- Number
- #9
- Born
- August 6, 1999 in Orange, CA, USA
- MLB debut
- May 15, 2023
- Drafted
- 2018, round 1
- College
- UCLA
- High school
- Beckman
- Salary, 2026
- $2.3M
- dbWAR
- 1.8 2 season(s)
- PA
- 344
- AVG
- .195
- OBP
- .295
- SLG
- .346
- wRC+
- 82 100 = avg
Matt McLain is a second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds. In 2026 he hit 10 home runs and knocked in 28 RBIs, notching 58 hits across 344 plate appearances in 89 games. His batting average was .195, 20.1% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .295 clip and slugged .346, for an OPS of .641, 10.9% lower than the league mark of .719 — 11th of 15 on his team, and 316th of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 86.4 mph off the bat, hit 36.8% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 9.8% of them and made contact on 71.8% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 82 wRC+ puts his offence 18% below average. That comes to 0.7 dbWAR — -7.7 runs with the bat, +1.3 on the bases, +2.1 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.
League context
Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +7.3 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.
WAR by season
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 84 | 68 | 14 | 4 | 13 | 17 | .206 | .341 | .382 | .331 | 20.2% |
| vs RHP | 260 | 230 | 44 | 6 | 26 | 77 | .191 | .281 | .335 | .279 | 29.6% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 207 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 204 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 9.8% 20 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 86.4 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 110.5 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 36.8% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 40.7% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- 19.6° average
A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.
Hot and cold zones
Batting average by pitch location, 2026.
Situational hitting
How Matt McLain hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 344 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .195 | .295 | .346 | .291 |
| Bases empty | 203 | 177 | 39 | 5 | 5 | 23 | 46 | .220 | .320 | .345 | .305 |
| Runner on first | 67 | 58 | 10 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 25 | .172 | .284 | .448 | .320 |
| Runners on | 141 | 121 | 19 | 5 | 23 | 16 | 48 | .157 | .259 | .347 | .272 |
| RISP | 74 | 63 | 9 | 1 | 14 | 8 | 23 | .143 | .236 | .254 | .228 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 89 | 344 | 58 | 10 | 28 | 13 | 39 | 94 | .195 | .295 | .346 | .151 | .246 | 11.3% | 27.3% | .291 | -7.7 | 82 | 0.7 | |
| 2025 | 145 | 577 | 112 | 15 | 50 | 18 | 55 | 167 | .220 | .300 | .343 | .124 | .292 | 9.5% | 28.9% | .289 | -12.4 | 82 | 1.1 |
Head to head
Put Matt McLain beside up to three others.
Similar players
Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.