Does Cincinnati Have MLB’s Best Double-Play Duo?

De La Cruz solidified himself as one of the best shortstops in the game in 2024. The 23-year-old posted a 6.4fWAR in 2024. A mark that was ninth in all of baseball and fourth among shortstops. Francisco Lindor, Gunnar Henderson, and Bobby Witt Jr. were the only shortstops to post a higher fWAR in 2024.

That’s pretty good company.

Defensively, De La Cruz was also fourth among all shortstops and 11th overall with 15 Outs Above Average. Dansby Swanson, Lindor, and Witt were the only shortstops to top the 15 OAA mark.

Once again, that’s pretty good company.

The young shortstop is a true superstar. Not many superstar shortstops have a great running mate up the middle, but Elly does.

Matt McLain

In 2023, McLain was able to solidify himself as a key piece to the future of the Cincinnati Reds.

The former first-round pick out of UCLA posted a 127wRC+ and 3.1fWAR across 89 games while playing solid defense at short.

Then, McLain missed the entire 2024 season, a huge blow to this lineup.

In 2025, McLain will be making the move to second base where he looks to be the best up-the-middle compliment to any superstar shortstop in the league. While the 89-game sample we saw in 2023 is clearly not a full season, it is enough to see the potential for what McLain can be.

The 25-year-old’s .507 slugging percentage and .864 OPS both would have ranked second among second basemen in 2024, only behind Ketel Marte. If he can take a leap or even just match his 2023 pace, McLain will be in the conversation as one of the top second basemen in the entire sport in 2025.

Cincinnati Duo vs. the Field

When asking ourselves if De La Cruz and McLain can be a top double-play duo in the MLB, we have to look at the rest of the league. In order to compare, I combined the 2024 fWAR outputs of every projected middle-infield duo in the league based on Fangraphs’ Roster Resource.

With McLain missing all of 2024, we are going to take his 3.1fWAR from 2023 and combine it with De La Cruz’s 6.4 fWAR from this past season. Would you like to take a guess as to where the duo of Elly De La Cruz and Matt McLain would have ranked in all of baseball by fWAR?

Second.

Their combined 9.5fWAR comes in only behind the Royals, where Witt’s 10.4fWAR was enough by itself to best any duo in the sport.

As stated above, Lindor, Henderson, and Witt were the only shortstops to post a higher fWAR than De La Cruz in 2024. All three players have running mates up the middle that posted an fWAR below 1.9 last season.

Playing devil’s advocate, Corey Seager missed time while Marcus Semien had a down year at the plate. Carlos Correa missed around half of the season and still put up a 4.3-win season while one would expect Brooks Lee to have a better 2025 than his debut 2024 season that saw him as a below-replacement-level player.

Jackson Holliday also can be expected to take a step forward in 2025.

While all of that is true, don’t forget that McLain’s 3-win season came in just 89 games. Could that 3-win season jump to a 5-win season if he plays a full year? It is certainly possible.

A wrench was seemingly thrown into this idea when the Reds made a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers for Gavin Lux earlier this offseason.

Lux, a former top prospect, has primarily been a second baseman in his career with the Dodgers. However, Terry Francona seems keen on making Lux the guy to move around the diamond while keeping McLain at second.

With Tito giving McLain the Dustin Pedroia comparison, and McLain having made all of his starts at second base this preseason, it seems as though the 25-year-old will have the chance to be the best running mate of any up-the-middle superstar in the sport.

If that proves to be true, the Reds will be reaping the benefits.