When the Cincinnati Reds headed to Goodyear in February, Matt McLain was anticipated to be an enormous a part of the workforce in 2024. He was coming off of a 12 months by which he performed like an All-Star, however a shoulder harm within the subject late within the spring would result in him lacking a lot of the season, after which whereas rehabbing and attempting to prepare to move out on a rehab project within the minor leagues he suffered a rib harm that will price him the rest of the 12 months.
The Arizona Fall League is often a spot for prospects, however a number of groups are using the league this 12 months as a rehab stint for giant league gamers who’re coming off of accidents. Cincinnati despatched each Matt McLain and Christian Encarnacion-Strand to the league and on Tuesday they made their debuts within the season opener for the Glendale Desert Canines and introduced their presence with authority.
McLain began the sport at second base and was hitting second within the lineup. After hanging out in his first at-bat, he doubled, walked, after which homered in his last three journeys to the plate. His double was a rocket to the wall in left-center that got here off of the bat at 106 MPH. Three innings later he clobbered a 398-foot house run to left-center. That will finish his day because the Desert Canines went to the bench and made a number of defensive replacements to start the following inning. McLain’s alternative on the day occurred to be his youthful brother Sean McLain, who’s a prospect within the Los Angeles Dodgers group.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who missed a lot of the 2024 season with a wrist harm, returned to the sphere submit surgical procedure out in Arizona. In his first journey to the plate he got here by means of with a sacrifice fly that scored Reds prospect Tyler Callihan. The following time up he doubled into the left subject nook. The ball got here off of his bat at 110.3 MPH. So should you had any considerations about how laborious he may hit the ball coming off of the harm it feels such as you in all probability shouldn’t be anxious all that a lot. He would single in his third journey to the plate earlier than hanging out within the last two at-bats. Encarnacion-Strand completed the day 2-4 with three runs batted in.
Whereas the 2 massive leaguers did their job, the three Reds prospects that additionally performed within the sport acquired issues achieved, too. Tyler Callihan, who spent the 12 months in Double-A, went 1-3 with two walks, a steal, and he scored three runs. Edwin Arroyo, who missed the complete 12 months after a shoulder harm led to shoulder surgical procedure again in March, went 1-3 with a double, run, and an RBI. After which it was reliever Luis Mey who closed out the sport with an ideal ninth inning that noticed him high out at 101.8 MPH.
If you wish to maintain tabs on these guys and even watch the video games, you are able to do that a lot. The schedule options 30 video games for Glendale and 27 of them are ones that you would be able to stream totally free on MLB.com or the MLB App. The humorous a part of all of that is, is that the three video games that aren’t accessible to observe are the three video games that will probably be performed on the Reds spring coaching facility at Goodyear Ballpark. You possibly can see the complete schedule for the Desert Canines proper right here.
