The Yankees Have Swung a Deal For 3rd Baseman Ryan McMahon To Help Improve Their Putrid Defense

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The Yankees are on the board for this year's trade deadline as they go out and acquire 3rd baseman Ryan McMahon. Now I'm not gonna go over the top here and say the season is saved with the World Series in sights. I'm also not going to say this is a disaster of a move. Allow me to break down his profile below with what we're getting. 

McMahon is a great defender with a +4 OAA (outs above average) and +4 DRS (defensive runs saved) this year. If you've watched any of the Yankees games recently you know they desperately needed defense at the deadline. 3rd base has been a disaster this year on both sides of the ball. It had to be addressed. An infield of McMahon, Volpe, Jazz, and Goldschmidt is pretty damn good assuming Volpe gets his head out of his ass soon enough.

McMahon's bat is the shaky part of his game having never posted an OPS+ of 100 (league average) in his career. His road numbers (.589 OPS) are putrid and his splits vs lefties (.599 OPS) are just as bad. He does have some good lefty pop, however, and should find the short porch inviting. McMahon pulling the ball in the air at Yankee Stadium will result in good things. 

McMahon is second in the whole sport in strikeouts, so if you were hoping for more contact oriented guys, look somewhere else. 

While the road numbers are ugly, it is worth noting that Coors Field negatively impacts offensive performance on the road. Outside of Trevor Story, it's common to see guys go to other teams and see their home/road splits level out more.

His metrics are show there's plenty of hard contact to go around, but swing and miss as well. 

How about a positive? McMahon is durable and will come over to play the position he's accustomed to. Both of those things usually don't align with the Yankees roster construction. 

McMahon is owed $16M a year for the next two which isn't great. Is there a chance this is a 2025 DJ LeMahieu contract in 2027? For sure. He also required the team to part ways with a good prospect arm in Griffin Herring. The thing with Herring is that he's still in A ball and probably two years away. The Yankees have proven if there's one thing they're good at it, it's developing arms in the minors over the years. Trading from your strength to help your current issues is a good move. 

The Yankees got better today. Is McMahon the game changer like Eugenio Suarez? No, but they needed defensive help big time and he brings that. McMahon has good lefty pop and hopefully being thrown into competitive baseball, a better lineup, and the short porch will give us a league average bat. He at least be an upgrade offensively to Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas who could not be worse at the plate. I'm assuming the Diamondbacks asked for something like Spencer Jones and/or Cam Schlittler for 2 months of Suarez. Well, whatever you held onto there, use it for elite relief pitching like Jhoan Duran or Ryan Helsley. The lineup is actually solid. They need to sure up the defense and stock high leverage relievers. My bold prediction is that Jasson Dominguez gets traded to Minnesota. We shall see.