Ryan McMahon’s time in pinstripes has been defined by one ugly truth: the Yankees got the glove they wanted at third base, but the bat never came close to matching the billing.
That gap got harder to ignore Wednesday, when McMahon went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts. With that kind of night added to the ledger, he has now landed in some rough Yankees company. Jack Fungo noted on X that McMahon owns an 80 wRC+ across 162 games since the Yankees acquired him at the 2025 trade deadline, a number that checks in below DJ LeMahieu’s final season before his release, Josh Donaldson’s entire Yankees run, Joey Gallo’s time in New York, Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s 2023 season and Anthony Volpe’s 2025 season.
Ryan McMahon has now played a full 162 games as part of the #Yankees
His 80 wRC+ over that time is lower than…
👉LeMahieu’s last season that prompted his release
👉Josh Donaldson’s NYY career
👉Joey Gallo’s NYY career
👉IKF’s worst year as a Yankee
👉Volpe’s worst year
- Jack Fungo (@FungoMLB) September 16, 2026
That’s not the sort of neighborhood the Yankees want a regular third baseman living in. McMahon is sitting 20 points below the league-average 100 wRC+, and his season line tells the same story: 10 home runs, 34 RBI, a .210/.275/.346 slash line and a .621 OPS.
The bat was always the question. McMahon had productive years with the Rockies, but his best numbers came at Coors Field, where the altitude helped inflate his home production. Even before he changed teams, the signs were there that his offense might not travel cleanly.
New York still made the move because it needed a third baseman last year, and it paired McMahon with Amed Rosario in a platoon at the hot corner. So far, neither player has locked down the job on a full-time basis. Rosario, though, has been swinging it better lately, batting .348 over his last seven sporadically used games.
If Rosario keeps that up through the end of the regular season, the Yankees could lean on him at third in October. There’s also a path where Jose Caballero handles third base and Anthony Volpe is available off the bench. McMahon may still be on the roster, but the Yankees can’t afford to run his bat out there regularly in the biggest games.
His defense is the one thing keeping this from being over already. Without it, he likely would have been designated for assignment by now.
Instead, he remains under contract for another year at $16 million, even as his offensive numbers continue to point toward a move the Yankees may eventually have to make anyway. At this point, McMahon simply has not worked out in New York, and the end of his run in pinstripes feels closer than ever.
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Lagranges season has been uneven overall, with a 4.48 ERA across 19 Triple-A games, but the Yankees are clearly treating this as more about health and continued reps than immediate results. Hes expected to make a few more appearances before the focus shifts toward 2027, which makes his next outings worth tracking closely. The stuff has always been part of the appeal, and now the question is how quickly he can turn that raw velocity into something more reliable as he works back into form. [Read more 🡒]