Now that the MLB calendar has flipped to June, not only is the temperature heating up but so is talk about the MLB trade deadline. June is a month where there begins to be a separation between the best and the worst of the league, where teams either become buyers or sellers. At 21-40, it's all but certain that the Colorado Rockies should become sellers. But will they move one of their best piece in third baseman Ryan McMahon?
There's simply little to no chance that this year's Rockies team hits a hot streak and finds their way back into playoff contention by the trade deadline. They are easily the worst team in the National League West by a mile. They're 16 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers and eight games back of the fourth-place Arizona Diamondbacks. Overall, they're tied for the second-worst record in the MLB.
This has unfortunately become a familiar theme in Denver. The Rockies haven't been to the postseason since 2019, winners then of 91 games. Since then, they have yet to become a .500 team and lost a franchise-worst 103 games last season. It's also a franchise overall that has never won their own division, even when they won the National League pennant and moved onto the World Series back in 2007.
McMahon has been a part of this disastrous franchise for his entire eight-year career and has seen nothing but regression every year. Yet, he signed a six-year extension with the Rockies back in 2022 worth $70 million. He still has three years remaining on the deal, to which owner Dick Monfort is reportedly intent on keeping on his books.
In his trade deadline piece, ESPN's Jeff Passan noted how McMahon should be first in line of Rockies players to be traded, seeing as he has the most value. But Monfort likes his current third baseman an awful lot.
Stranger things have happened the closer the trade deadline gets. Many times we've heard from owners and general managers claiming they won't move off their biggest stars, then all of a sudden some team comes through with a sweet deal and then a player is renting U-Haul trucks minutes later. For every Perry Minasian that didn't move off a Shohei Ohtani, there's a Mike Rizzo who will trade a Juan Soto.
So, with that being said, if there is really only one team that makes the most sense for McMahon to be traded to, and it's clearly the New York Yankees.
Yankees trade for Ryan McMahon makes too much sense
In the American League, right now there's the Yankees, then everyone else — and there's not much competition that could touch them in the National League. The Bronx Bombers currently are tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for the best record in baseball at 44-19. To put it lightly, the Yankees have been a dominating force this season, the likes of which no one truly saw coming.
That's what happens when you have two of the best hitters on the planet currently in Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. The two sluggers have boosted the Yankees' offense to the top of most hitting categories. Even their rotation that lost last year's American League Cy Young award winner Gerrit Cole earlier this season is dominating on the mound, having the second-best ERA in the league.
So what could possibly be missing from this team and why is it Ryan McMahon?
If there is one weakness to the Yankees, it comes from their infield, specifically from Gleyber Torres, Anthony Rizzo, and DJ LeMahieu.
Second baseman Torres in his 63 games is slashing the worst out of the trio with a line of .231/.307/.341, while Rizzo in his 61 games isn't much better at .236/.295/.356. The story is a bit different for third baseman LeMahieu, however, who just returned from a fracture in his right foot. The 35-year-old is off to a slow start, going 4-for-22 so far in his seven games played. But overall, his production has been in decline over the last several years.
And if we want to continue talking about third baseman, LeMahieu's fill-in Oswaldo Cabrera has been nothing to write home about either, batting just .236.
What makes McMahon so intriguing for the Yankees, besides his current season of 10 homers, 34 RBIs, 30 runs scored, and a slash line of .278/.366/.457, is that not only could he help alleviate their problems at third base, he's versatile enough to play just about anywhere on the infield. He has just over 450 innings of play at first base and over 1,700 at second in his career, per Baseball Reference.
When you then consider also that Hal Steinbrenner is looking at cutting costs for the future (probably to sign Juan Soto?), then a trade for McMahon also helps in that regard, as that would help the team rid themselves of Rizzo and Torres' combined contracts.
