Alexander Wilson
The New York Yankees went into spring training knowing Anthony Volpe would miss the first few weeks of the regular season. What they probably did not anticipate was spending March debating whether their third baseman could play shortstop. Welcome to the 2026 roster construction puzzle.
With Volpe on the shelf, José Caballero is the expected starter at short to open the year, and that is a workable situation. But Boone is building contingencies, and the one that has drawn the most attention is Ryan McMahon.
On Tuesday, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, Boone said he would be comfortable starting McMahon at shortstop in a regular-season game, which is a notable level of confidence for a player with exactly three innings of professional experience at the position, all the way back in 2020 with the Rockies.
To McMahon’s credit, he has approached the challenge with his eyes wide open. “Do I think I’m going to be a Bobby Witt or Francisco Lindor at shortstop? No, I’m not dumb enough to think that,” McMahon told The Denver Gazette with a smile. “But do I think I could be serviceable if it came down to it? I think it’s just to have options.” Boone echoed that measured optimism. “His ability to go do that maybe allows you to go in a different way,” he said. “I expect he’ll be fine there, as natural a fielder as he is.”
The natural fielder part is not up for debate. McMahon is a four-time Gold Glove finalist at third base and one of the best defensive infielders the Yanks have had in years. The question is whether those instincts translate 90 feet to the left, where the angles, footwork, and arm angles are entirely different. Third base and shortstop are not interchangeable.
The side-to-side range required at short, the quick pivot throws on the run, the reads up the middle, they all demand a different internal clock than the hot corner, and McMahon’s clock has been set to third base his entire career. He has made errors in his limited shortstop reps this spring, which is understandable. The Yanks are clearly comfortable treating it as a genuine emergency option rather than a primary solution.
The Offensive Side Is the Real Story
The shortstop question is the headline. The bat is the actual concern.
McMahon posted a .214/.312/.381 slash line across 154 games last season, and that was his full-year number. In 54 games after the trade to New York, he hit .208/.308/.333 with four homers and 62 strikeouts in 159 at-bats. He was not right at the plate from the moment he arrived. This spring has been more of the same, .111/.158/.194 with a -15 wRC+ and a 28.9% strikeout rate.
McMahon knows the problem. He had the fourth-widest batting stance in MLB last season, and the spread was working against him. When your feet are too far apart, your hands drop lower as you load. Lower hands mean a longer swing path. A longer swing path means you get beat by velocity inside and have trouble staying through the zone on breaking pitches. He was consistently a little short of the ball, and in this league, pitchers exploit that without mercy.
The fix this spring has been a narrower stance. Feet closer together, hands naturally higher at setup, less movement required to get into launch position. “A lot of good things happen from being a little bit closer together,” McMahon said. “My hands don’t drop as much, which is a super helpful thing. They travel a little bit higher, and that’s something that I do when I’m swinging it well.”
Boone was blunt about what the adjustment is designed to unlock. “He’s capable of driving the ball the other way with authority,” he said. “In layman’s terms, he’s a little short of the ball. In this league, you’ve got to make hay on pitches you need to handle.” Cashman has been equally direct about the upside they believe is still there. McMahon ranked in the 89th percentile in hard-hit percentage and the 95th percentile in average exit velocity last season. The underlying contact quality is real. The swing mechanics were simply working against him.
What Should The Yankees Expect?
The spring numbers do not worry me as much as they might worry a casual observer. Stance changes take time to feel natural, and March at-bats against split-squad rosters are not the referendum on whether McMahon’s adjustment will hold. What matters is whether the narrower stance sticks when the games count in late April, when pitchers are exploiting every mechanical tendency they can find on film.
The Yankees traded for McMahon because they believed his Gold Glove defense and his 89th-percentile hard-hit data were a foundation worth building on. If the stance change closes the gap between his contact quality and his actual results, they get an average offensive third baseman who plays elite defense. That is not a luxury piece.
In a lineup built around Judge, Rice, Bellinger, and Stanton, that is exactly the kind of steady two-way contributor who does not get enough credit when things go well and gets blamed for everything when one grounder skips under his glove.
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