Why the Reds added Matt Reynolds to the roster instead of Matt McLain

Okay, everybody just calm down. If you couldn't see this from a mile away then you haven't been paying attention.

On Friday, the Cincinnati Reds selected the contract of Matt Reynolds and placed Tony Santillan on the 60-day IL. Santillan had a setback during his rehab stint, so this isn't surprising news.

What's mildly surprising, but not really, is that the Reds selected the contract of Reynolds instead of Matt McLain. One of the Reds top prospects, McLain has been tearing it up in Triple-A so far this season.

Why the Reds added Matt Reynolds to the roster instead of Matt McLain.

So why wasn't Matt McLain added to the team's 40-man roster? Quite frankly, it's because the Cincinnati Reds want to maintain roster flexibility at this point in the season and adding Matt Reynolds allows them to that.

By the way, before we get too deep into this, it's not as if Reynolds hasn't been playing well down the road in Louisville. Reynolds is slashing .263/.364/.544 with seven doubles, three home runs, and nine RBIs. Were Reynolds not injured during spring training, it's quite possible that he would have secured that final roster spot over Jason Vosler.

Now, back to McLain. Why not just call up one of your top prospects who's playing so well? Well, the Reds really don't have an everyday spot available for him at the moment. Sure, you could come up with some outside-the-box idea for a player or two to be out of position in order to get McLain's bat in the lineup, but Cincinnati is not going to do that at this stage of the game.

It's a 162-game season and the Cincinnati Reds were picked to finish dead-last in the National League Central Division. McLain has just 100 plate appearances in Triple-A so far. Reds fans don't like hearing this, but this rebuild is going to take time and the Cincinnati faithful are just going to have to be patient.

Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, and maybe even Andrew Abbott will all make it to the big leagues at some point this season. All they need to do is just keep performing down on the farm.