I’m going to throw some numbers at you and let you decide whether or not I’m completely making them up.
Matt McLain, the resident 2B of the Cincinnati Reds and likely #2 hitter in the lineup everyday, is 17 for 28 so far in Cactus League play in 2026. Seventeen for twenty-eight, or a .607 batting average.
He is Joey Votto now, roughly – he has walked 5 times so far in spring games while only owning a pair (2!) strikeouts across 10 games played.
He’s hit 5 dingers. He has 3 more home runs than he has strikeouts.
He is slugging 1.179. Over the final 11 seasons of Barry Bonds’ career, his OPS was 1.173.
Matt McLain, after homering again on Wednesday afternoon against the Milwaukee Brewers as part of a 3 for 3 day (that featured a pair of runs scored and a stolen base), is now hitting .607/.667/1.179, numbers that are so ridiculous they quite frankly ruin the triple-slash format because they’re so good.
He has a 1.846 OPS at the moment. That’s the best in all of spring training baseball across MLB right now.
In fact, he’s atop the spring MLB leaderboard in runs, hits, home runs, RBI, average, OBP, and SLG. He leads every Major League Baseball player in all of those.
Here’s the leaderboard. You can look at it yourself. You can look at it yourself, but you cannot unsee Matt McLain, because he’s literally the first name listed on pretty much any category you choose to sort.
Cincinnati Reds v Arizona Diamondbacks
He does not lead all of Major League Baseball in height, but that doesn’t matter.
None of these spring stats really matter, either, and they’ll all reset to .000 the moment the regular season begins in two weeks. The hope is, though, that McLain has fully turned the corner from his shoulder troubles and struggles from a year ago, and that the ridiculous dude we’ve had the chance to follow this spring is the guy who’s capable of being a really, really good big leaguer showing out in the best manner possible.
My brain typically ignores spring stats the moment spring training ends, and I honestly don’t recall anyone doing anything of note – bad or good – this side of Dave Sappelt. This McLain spring, though, may just be so ridiculous that I have a hard time forgetting it.
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