Cincinnati Reds' best player out for year after Matt McLain aggravates oblique injury
CLEVELAND – The cavalry is not coming just in the nick of time to save the Cincinnati Reds season.
Neither is Matt McLain.
McLain, the middle infielder who quickly became the Reds best player after debuting May 15, was expected to return from a month-long oblique injury Tuesday until he aggravated the injury during a rehab game Sunday with Triple-A Louisville.
An MRI confirmed the inflammation, which McLain described as the Grade 2-level strain that originally landed him on the injured list last month.
“That rules out the regular season,” manager David Bell said. “We’ll see what happens after that.”
Bell said no long-term issues emerged after the MRI and exam, and if the Reds make the playoffs, then win two or three postseason series, well, “you never know; maybe he makes it back.”
Until then, consider McLain out for the year.
“It definitely sucks,” he said, “but I knew it would be tough to come back, and I knew it was going to be really quick to come back with the level that it was in the first place. But I really wanted to for our team. And it just didn’t happen, unfortunately."
McLain is the third injured player in four days the Reds determined will not return for even the final few games of the season or playoffs, including reliever Tejay Antone (elbow) and outfielder Harrison Bader (groin).
“We knew we were pushing it as hard as we could to get him back,” Bell said. “He did the best he could.”
McLain, who hit .290 with 16 homers and an .864 OPS, still led the Reds in WAR for the season in just 89 games until TJ Friedl passed him over the weekend (per baseball-reference.com).
“It sucks to get hurt, and it sucks for my season personally to end like that,” he said. “But it’s part of the game. It’s just another challenge that I’m going to try to [get through].“
McLain, who said he never had a strain or pull of a muscle or ligament in his life, described the setback not so much as an incident on a single play but “it was just kind of like, ‘This really hurts,’ and then the next day it really hurt.”
The team was 48-41 when he played. They’re 12-13 since.
“I grew a ‘stache to be somewhat useful,” he said of the faint, red patch of hair atop his grin, “to make guys laugh or something.
“It worked for Spencer [Steer], so I grew one. To be useful in some way.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds' Matt McLain aggravates oblique injury, season over
