The Reds announced today that infielder has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain. His roster spot goes to outfielder , who has been activated from the concu sion list. McLain, 24, has been one of Jordan Weems Jersey several Cincinnati rookies to hit the ground running in the big leagues this year, helping the club vault themselves from rebuilding and into contending. Since getting promoted to the big leagues in May, he has struck out in 28.5% of his 403 plate appearances but has launched 16 home runs and stolen 14 bases. His .290/.357/.507 batting line translates to a 128 wRC+, indicating hes been 28% better than the league average hitter. Hes also been graded as a strong defender at both middle infield positions, leading to a tally of 3.3 wins above replacement from FanGraphs in just 89 games this year. Losing that kind of production is obviously an unfortunate development for the Reds, especially as they have been scuffling a bit lately. The club has gone 9-15 in August and is now a game and a half out of a playoff spot. They will now have to proceed without McLain for at least the next 10 days, which is unfortunate timing in a couple of ways. For one thing, the Reds are coming up to an important part of the schedule, with their next seven games coming against the Giants and Cubs, a couple of the clubs they are battling in the Wild Card race. Theres also the fact that theres just over a month left in the schedule, which gives McLain a narrow window of time to return. If hes able to come back after a minimal stint, he could still rejoin the club for a few more weeks, but oblique injuries are notoriously irksome and could make that difficult for him. The club hasnt yet provided any specific estimates on his absence, but more information on that front will likely be forthcoming. McLain has primarily been serving as the second baseman of late, with at shortstop. , who has been playing left field, is at the keystone tonight in McLains absence but the depth chart is a little light at the position apart from that, especially with and both on the injured list. Both De La Cruz and are shortstops and could theoretically handle the position, but Marte has never played there profe sionally and De La Cruz never in the majors. is on the 40-man and has a bit of second base experience, but not much, just 10 2/3 innings in the majors and then 248 innings at Single-A back in 2018. Its also po sible this injury could have an impact on National League Rookie of the Year voting, as McLain had emerged as one of the contenders for that award alongside some of his teammates and other players like , and . Now that the new collective bargaining agreement allows club to potentially receive draft pick compensation based on awards voting under certain conditions, those races have implications beyond just the importance to the players themselves. Cesar Hernandez Jersey