After weeks of inadequate play at third base, the New York Yankees have filled one of their biggest needs at the trade deadline.
The Yankees are acquiring Colorado Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon for pitching prospects Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz, a team source told The Athletic. The 30-year-old is under contract for two more seasons and is owed $32 million, along with the rest of his $12 million salary this season.
McMahon has graded out as one of the 10 best defensive third basemen this season, but his offense is below average. Since debuting in 2017, McMahon has never had a year in which he’s been at least league average in wRC+, and that’s with playing half of his games at hitter-friendly Coors Field. Even though McMahon has never posted an above-average season offensively, it should still be better than what the Yankees are getting out of Oswald Peraza. Among all Yankees with at least 160 plate appearances in a single season since 1961, Peraza’s 24 wRC+ is the second worst, only Bucky Dent’s 10 wRC+ in 1982 is worse. He’s currently hitting .217 with 16 home runs and 35 RBIs and a .717 OPS in 100 games with the Rockies.
But the value the Yankees must see in McMahon is his defense. The club’s left side of their infield has been sloppy all season. Having McMahon should provide stability at the hot corner, with a rival scout telling The Athletic that he was “a bit like DJ LeMahieu, solid but with a somewhat below average arm.”
An All-Star in 2024, McMahon is the most prominent player traded by the Rockies since Nolan Arenado was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals before the 2021 season. Although Colorado arguably held on to McMahon at least a year too long, he retains some value as an excellent defender with 20-homer power. While McMahon’s strikeout rates have remained elevated as he approaches his 31st birthday, he is consistently putting the ball in the air, and his average exit velocity is higher than ever.
Away from Coors Field, the overall package might not be far above replacement level. Like most Rockies hitters, McMahon has performed significantly better at elevation, with just a .589 OPS on the road this season. Still, his contract isn’t outrageous, and he’s the kind of veteran who can help a contender in October. McMahon, at least, won’t lack motivation. He hasn’t played in the postseason since he was a rookie in 2018.
In Herring and Grosz, the Yankees traded two young, higher-end arms who weren’t particularly close to contributing to the Yankees anytime soon.
But it was another instance in which they were able to use recently-drafted middle-round selections and turn them into chips for MLB talent heading into the deadline.
The prize was Herring, a 22-year-old sixth-round pick out of Louisiana State University in 2024. He touches the mid-90s and has an impressive sweeper, and he put up stellar numbers in the low minors. He went 4-1 with a 1.21 ERA in eight starts at Low-A Tampa before going 3-2 with a 2.62 ERA in eight starts at High-A Hudson Valley, with “sneaky” good stuff, according to an opposing scout.
Grosz, 22, was an 11th-round pick out of East Carolina University in 2023. The Yankees liked him enough as a starter to keep him as part of their impressive stock of rotation arms at High A, and he had a 4-8 record with a 4.76 ERA in 16 games (15 starts). The same opposing scout saw Grosz earlier in the year and called him “solid”, projecting him as a future reliever.
Trade grades
Rockies: B
Yankees: B+
Two weeks after releasing DJ LeMahieu, the Yankees have brought in a new Rockie to fill the void at third base. McMahon has long tantalized rival evaluators, who wondered if his production would improve if he left Coors Field. Like a lot of Colorado hitters, McMahon does most of his damage at home but struggles on the road. Those splits could stabilize if he stops playing half his games at altitude. And any left-handed hitter will welcome a change to swing for the Yankee Stadium fences.
McMahon is an excellent defender who will improve a Yankees club plagued by fielding lapses in recent weeks. (Or, years, depending on your perspective.) The Yankees can afford to take on the two years and $32 million remaining on his contract after this season. McMahon is a weaker hitter than pending free agent Eugenio Suárez, the other top third baseman on the market, but he affords some stability at the position beyond this year.
This wasn’t the first summer that the Yankees have called the Rockies about McMahon. Credit to the folks in Colorado for showing willingness to engage on a homegrown player who signed an extension. It remains to be seen if the organization can do much to develop the two arms they acquired. Herring, a sixth-rounder out of Louisiana State last summer, has pitched well in the lower minors this season. One scout indicated Grosz, an 11th rounder in 2023, was likely to reach the majors as a reliever.
This is not a franchise-altering maneuver for Colorado. But it represents a recognition of reality. Which is an upgrade over previous summers. -Andy McCullough
Yankees: B-
Rockies: A
The Yankees desperately needed help at third base, and while this trade market seems to have a lot of readily available third basemen, only Eugenio Suárez offers massive offensive upside. Most of the help available at the hot corner is glove first, with varying degrees of offensive viability.
Of that non-Suárez tier, McMahon was the best all-around option. He’s a good defender (4 outs above average) with left-handed power (16 home runs this year, more than 20 each of the past four seasons). He also pulls the ball 40 percent of the time and rarely goes to the opposite field, an approach that could play well at Yankee Stadium. He has, however, hit far better at home than on the road this season and in his career.
In return, the Rockies get a couple of pitchers with excellent minor league numbers this season. Neither is an elite prospect, but moving McMahon’s contract wasn’t going to bring back such singular talent. The Rockies need pitching, and they’re trying to get it. More importantly, they’re finally being active at the deadline. That alone is a step in the right direction for that franchise. – Chad Jennings
(Top photo of Ryan McMahon: Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
