Matt McLain gets center field reps as Dane Myers lands on the IL

What happened

Matt McLain is playing center field for the Cincinnati Reds, and the timeline from casual suggestion to actual big-league starts has been, by any measure, brisk. Per MLB Trade Rumors, McLain entered a game earlier this week as a pinch-hitter and remained on the field in center — his first appearance at the position in the majors. The following day, he made his first career start there.

The whole thing traces back to a conversation just last week, when manager Terry Francona suggested McLain go shag some fly balls in center field. Per Charlie Goldsmith of Charlie's Chalkboard, Francona's framing was notably low-pressure: "Just have some fun with it. Nobody has a crystal ball." That is either a very relaxed approach to defensive repositioning or a very honest one. Possibly both.

McLain, for his part, told Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer that the work wasn't entirely new — he had taken pre-game reps in center before, though purely for his own enjoyment. Once Francona made it a point of emphasis, McLain said, the approach shifted. "The lineup could be different every day," he told Wittenmyer. When the manager points toward center field, McLain's message was clear: you head to center field. That is a fairly clean summary of how roster flexibility gets built in a major-league clubhouse — a manager raises an eyebrow, a player takes it seriously, and a few days later it's in the box score.

Why it matters

The operational context here is straightforward. Per MLB Trade Rumors, Dane Myers hit the injured list, which created the center field opening that McLain has moved into. The Reds now have a player who was previously deployed as an infielder logging starts in center, which expands what Francona can do with his lineup construction on any given day.

Defensive versatility carries real value at the roster-construction level. Under standard league mechanics, a 26-man active roster through the end of August demands that every spot carry weight, and a player who can credibly cover multiple positions — including one as premium as center field — gives a manager more levers to pull. Whether McLain's center field work becomes a regular feature of how Cincinnati deploys him, or whether it remains a situational option tied to Myers's absence, is a question the coming weeks will answer.

What's already clear is that the Reds moved quickly. From Francona's suggestion to McLain's first career start in center took, per MLB Trade Rumors, just a matter of days. That's not a long organizational deliberation — that's a manager noticing something, a player responding, and a circumstance arriving right on cue.

Where the club stands

The Reds are 75-87 (.463), fifth in the NL Central and 28 games back of the division lead, with both the division and Wild Card races formally closed for the season. Cincinnati also ranks 9th in the Wild Card picture, 13.0 relative to the cut line. The math on that is not encouraging, which is part of why a development like McLain's positional expansion carries a different kind of significance right now. This is a club in a position to find out what it has — and the schedule ahead offers ample opportunity to keep finding out.

The club enters Thursday on a one-game losing streak. That day brings a road game at American Family Field in Milwaukee, where Chase Burns is the probable starter against Jacob Misiorowski. The Reds then return home to Great American Ball Park for a Friday matchup against the Baltimore Orioles, with Brady Singer projected against Trevor Rogers, followed by a Saturday game on July 4th with Hunter Greene lined up against Brandon Young.

That stretch of games will give Francona continued opportunity to experiment with his lineup — and, presumably, to keep running McLain out to center field if the situation calls for it.

What we don't know yet

The nature and timeline of Dane Myers's IL placement have not been detailed in the report. The injury diagnosis, the expected duration of his absence, and whether he might return to reclaim the center field role are all unspecified. Per MLB Trade Rumors, the IL placement is reported, but nothing beyond that has been attributed.

It's also worth noting that McLain's center field work is, at this point, a very small sample. Two appearances — one as a pinch-hitter who stayed in the game, one as a starter — is enough to say it happened, not enough to say how it's going. Francona's "nobody has a crystal ball" framing applies here as much as anywhere.

What to watch

Can McLain hold down center field?

Per MLB Trade Rumors, McLain told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the lineup could be different every day, and Francona has already shown he's willing to write it that way. The question going forward is whether McLain's center field work becomes a durable part of how the Reds construct their lineup, or whether it remains a stopgap tied specifically to Myers's absence. When Myers's IL situation resolves — in whatever direction it resolves — that will clarify how much of this experiment was circumstance and how much was genuine long-term positioning.

In the meantime, the Reds have a player who, just last week, was an infielder being told to have fun shagging fly balls, and who is now starting in center field in the major leagues. The crystal ball remains, as Francona noted, unavailable. But the fly balls are very much in play.