The Yankees talk about Ryan McMahon — who turns 31 this weekend and is entering his 10th major league season — the way many talk about toolsy top prospects looking to break through.
“I think now with us getting the full spring training with him, a winter working with him, maybe we can unlock some things,” general manager Brian Cashman said this week about the third baseman’s bat.
“I feel like there’s a real two-way player in there,” manager Aaron Boone said at the Winter Meetings. “And hopefully we can help him make little adjustments here that unlock all that.”
In the not-so-distant past, the Yankees had success in bringing over players from the often-dismal and analytically behind-the-curve Rockies with Mike Tauchman and DJ LeMahieu enjoying their best seasons in pinstripes. Could McMahon, given a full season in The Bronx, be next?
It would be rare for a player as veteran as McMahon — with more than 1,000 games played over nine seasons in which he has never registered an OPS that is above average — to reach another level at this stage, but the Yankees are hopeful the deadline pickup from Colorado can be more than his excellent glove. The work toward maximizing his swing has begun.
“He and our hitting guys have really had some good conversations as he’s starting in to our hitting program now this winter,” Boone said this week. “He’s a tremendous athlete, real power. Feel like knows the strike zone pretty well.
“There’s some things he does in his swing that get him in trouble a little bit, but it would not surprise me at all to see him go to a different level offensively.”
The biggest flaw in McMahon’s swing is an obvious one: No one swings and misses more. But McMahon is somewhat unique in his whiffing profile: He does not chase outside the strike zone often.
McMahon is a patient slugger with strong strike zone discipline who walks often — his 12 percent rate last season ranked 24th, squeezed in between Bryce Harper and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — and seldom offers at pitches he should ignore. And yet when he does swing, he simply misses far too often.
Against pitches in the zone, his 25.2 percent swing-and-miss rate was the second-worst last season. Among pitches out of the zone, his 62.3 percent whiff rate was the worst. It all added up to a majors-worst 32.3 percent strikeout rate.
McMahon compensates with some pop (six seasons of at least 20 home runs), an average exit velocity of 93.3 mph last season (which ranked ninth, between Rafael Devers and Fernando Tatis Jr.) and some outstanding defense at third base.
“He was one of the productive players in our postseason run this year on both sides of the ball,” Cashman said of McMahon, who posted an .833 October OPS and will be remembered for making a catch while flipping into the Red Sox dugout in the wild-card series clincher. “[He] certainly makes our pitching staff better, especially when you have ground-ball guys like [Max] Fried and [Carlos] Rodón and all those ground balls going to that side of the field.
“I think he was a good get. But [are] there areas to improve upon? Sure. And we look forward to seeing if we can.”
There is also the possibility that a bit less of McMahon can produce more. The lefty swinger was rarely shielded from opposing lefties with Colorado and has done far more damage against right-handed pitchers (a career .763 OPS against righties and .676 OPS vs. lefties).
Maybe working in a platoon with a righty bat such as Amed Rosario or Miguel Andujar, McMahon’s numbers tick up.
Maybe more time with James Rowson and the rest of the Yankees’ hitting minds pays off, too.
“I think there’s a lot more in there offensively than we saw from Mac,” Boone said.
