Mariners rumors, Yankees insider's take should've made Ryan McMahon trade obvious

Right in line with Jack Curry's repeated cold water dumps, Yankees insider Joel Sherman popped in on Friday to realign fans' expectations ahead of the team's trade deadline priorities revealing themselves. Bottom line? The Yankees knew they had to get a third baseman, but filling that gap wasn't what worried the team the most as they laid out their plans.

And if you're not prioritizing Eugenio Suarez, in this competitive market? You're not going to get him. Hence ... Ryan McMahon, who was dealt to the Yankees less than 24 hours after the Mariners made a play for Josh Naylor.

According to Sherman, the Yankees are frightened about the way their rotation will hold up without knowing what they'll get from Luis Gil and Ryan Yarbrough. They're also confident in Mark Leiter Jr. and Fernando Cruz, but would love to get their hands on someone who could cover the final six-to-nine outs of an important game.

Those priorities are correct; the Yankees reportedly worry they're in danger of missing the postseason if they don't thicken out their pitching staff, and that could certainly happen.

When third base is your third-ranked concern, that's how you end up with McMahon, added on Friday afternoon in exchange for top-tier lefty Griffin Herring and righty Josh Grosz.

On Thursday night, there was a one-hour window when it felt like the Mariners had closed the door on their Suarez pursuits by acquiring Naylor. After all, why wouldn't they have polished off all their needs in Arizona in one fell swoop?

Instead of shutting the door, though, the Mariners' beat opened up the Suarez window wide in almost coordinated fashion. Clearly, someone really wanted to get the memo out that Seattle and Arizona weren't done chatting just yet.

Mariners' pursuit of Eugenio Suarez, Yankees prioritizing pitching line up for disappointment

If Brian Cashman wants to go as "all in" on this deadline as he claimed to desire, he'll be using his premium prospects to add to the rotation and bullpen.

Suarez and his 50 homers would've been nice, but the Yankees preferred a lesser prospect cost and $16 million of annual salary tied to their 2026 and 2027 ledgers. Maybe money is no longer an object for Hal Steinbrenner? Clearly, third base wasn't the "object" they most desired.