Matt McLain Makes Agency Change After Cincinnati Reds Season
· Yahoo Sports
Matt McLain is making a change off the field this offseason. The Cincinnati Reds second baseman has switched representation from VaynerSports to Black Mako Corp, according to Chatterbox Sports.
It is a routine business move on the surface, but it comes at an interesting time for a player who is at a crossroads in his career.
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McLain was one of the more exciting young players in the National League when he broke onto the scene in 2023. He hit .290 with 16 home runs, 50 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in just 89 games as a rookie, finishing fifth in NL Rookie of the Year voting. The Reds thought they had found their second baseman for years to come.
Then the shoulder injury happened. McLain missed all of 2024 recovering from left shoulder surgery, and the player who came back has not been the same. He hit .220 with a .643 OPS in 147 games in 2025.
In 2026 it got worse. McLain finished with a .185 average, 15 home runs, 40 RBIs and 20 stolen bases in 134 games, posting a .608 OPS that was a career low. He also dealt with a calf injury that landed him on the IL during the season, another setback in a stretch of his career that has been defined by them.
The Reds have given him plenty of time to get back to his old self, even though it clearly hindered the lineup. Cincinnati finished 75-87, fifth in the NL Central and 28 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers who are currently competing for a World Series title. The organization has a ton of questions to answer this offseason, and McLain’s situation is one of them.
Juan Brito is pushing for playing time at second base, and after two straight disappointing seasons the everyday job is no longer guaranteed.
McLain is entering his second year of salary arbitration eligibility in 2027 and is under team control through 2029, with free agency arriving in 2030. The agency switch does not change any of that timeline, but it does signal that McLain is thinking about how he is positioned heading into those negotiations.
None of that matters as much as what happens on the field. A bounce-back season would settle every question about his role in Cincinnati. Two straight down years have opened the door for someone else, and McLain knows that the clock is ticking.