Matt McLain needed only 89 games to produce 3.7 bWAR during his brilliant rookie campaign in 2023. The sad part, though, is that those 89 games didn’t get in from a nebulous call-up day through the end of the season.
Rather, his season ended on just August 27th due to an injured oblique, an injury that lingered (and recurred) as the 2024 season approached. As that issue was continuing to plague him in Goodyear during spring training, he (and we) later discovered he needed surgery in his left shoulder to address cartilage and labrum damage.
McLain did not play a professional game at any level during the 2024 season, meaning it’s now been 13.