Alexander Wilson
April was rough for Ryan McMahon, and there’s no sugarcoating it. He hit .190/.288/.293 with a .581 OPS, was one of the worst starting infielders in baseball, and had Yankees fans questioning whether the trade-deadline acquisition was ever going to deliver anything resembling the player who commanded double teams on the interior defensive line at the hot corner for years in Colorado. His defense is off too, posting a .933 fielding percentage with -3 defensive runs saved and -2 outs above average across 225 innings. It was a bad stretch in every direction.
The past two weeks look nothing like that.
What’s Changed
McMahon has been one of the better third basemen in the American League over the last 14 days, hitting .310/.310/.500 with a .810 OPS, two homers, and seven RBIs.
On Tuesday against the Rangers, he went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs off Jacob deGrom, which is not an easy at-bat against any hitter in baseball, let alone one who was scuffling through April. He also made several impactful defensive plays over the past week, beginning to look like the Gold Glove-caliber player the Yankees traded for rather than the liability he was through the first month.
His career numbers have always shown a player whose best production comes in the warmer months, which tracks with everything the Yankees knew when they acquired him. His history at Coors Field was always going to be a complicating factor, and adjusting from a park that inflates offensive numbers dramatically to a neutral environment in the American League East takes time.
The stance adjustment he worked on all offseason was supposed to close that gap, and while it struggled to show results in April, the contact quality and the swing mechanics over the past two weeks look considerably more like the player New York expected.
The Defensive Side Is Returning Too
The .933 fielding percentage from the first month was jarring for a player who had been one of the most reliable third basemen in the National League. McMahon’s footwork was off, his positioning was inconsistent, and the reads on balls hit down the line were slower than what his elite defensive reputation had prepared Yankees fans to expect.
What the past week has shown is that the defense is trending back toward where it belongs. A few highlight plays in the field, clean footwork on routine grounders, and the kind of quick reactions that made him a Gold Glove winner are starting to reappear. These things tend to come back together for players who have the defensive skill set he has. When the offense picks up and the comfort level in a new city grows, the body relaxes and the defensive instincts follow.
Where This Puts the Yankees
The Yankees are 25-11, and getting a productive McMahon is the piece that makes this lineup genuinely dangerous from top to bottom rather than just dangerous at the top to middle. When the bottom third of the order is contributing, opposing pitchers have no easy innings against New York. McMahon driving in two runs off deGrom on Tuesday is the kind of moment that separates a good team from a great one.
He’s not all the way back yet, and sustaining this over a full month will be more telling than two weeks. But the direction is right, the swing looks better, and the defense is finding its footing. The Yankees needed McMahon to show up. He finally is.
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