The trade deadline move that backfired on Yankees and will affect 2026 offseason

The New York Yankees' trade deadline performance got mostly positive reviews in the immediate aftermath. Brian Cashman seemingly went out and upgraded his two biggest areas of weakness — third base and the bullpen — without giving up any of the top chips in the system.

Sure, there were deals you could quibble with, such as the one for Jake Bird, but for the most part, it looked as if Cashman had done an admirable job on paper. However, such things take time to really come into focus, and now with the season in the rearview, it all looks a lot less rosy.

Camilo Doval gave Yankees fans far more cardiac events than they'd have preferred. The bench duo of Amed Rosario and Austin Slater had little impact, while David Bednar and Jose Caballero were mostly good. One acquisition stands out, though, as the one that was a disappointment in 2025, while also threatening the Yankees' offseason plans. His name is Ryan McMahon.

Ryan McMahon was a 2025 disappointment while also threatening to hold back the 2026 Yankees

McMahon was originally heralded as a major upgrade over Oswald Peraza, the former top prospect who had turned into one of, if not the, worst hitters in all of baseball. Not only was McMahon a step up offensively, but he was a legitimately good glove who would strengthen a defense that was spotty at times and whose miscues played an outsized role in their World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024.

But first, to put this trade in proper context, one needs to understand how we got to Peraza in the first place. Peraza was able to take control of the starting job at the hot corner because the position was completely ignored last season.

Bloated contracts to veterans the club no longer had use for — DJ LeMahieu and Marcus Stroman — pushed the Yankees up to Hal Steinbrenner's line in the sand, the final luxury tax threshold. With no desire to cross it, the Yankees rolled the dice on the trio of LeMahieu, Peraza, and Oswaldo Cabrera to hold down the fort, and got the results we all saw coming.

That put third base as an urgent need, especially after Cabrera's season-ending injury and LeMahieu making it clear he no longer had a place on a big league roster.

There were several different third base options on the market, but Cashman loves acquiring players with multiple years of control. However, in the case of McMahon, that control didn't come through arbitration but rather a relatively sizable six-year, $70 million extension he signed back in 2022.

In his desperation, Cashman ignored the red flags. McMahon was already having a down year, and for his career he had consistently struggled outside of the mile-high air he called home in Colorado, posting a career road OPS below .700.

The price he paid for McMahon was not insignificant either. Going back to Colorado were a pair of pitching prospects, with 22-year-old Griffin Herring being the headliner. The LSU product had posted a promising 2.22 ERA for High-A Hudson Valley and immediately turned in a similarly promising performance at the same level in Colorado's system.

McMahon, meanwhile, slashed just .208/.308/.333 with a 33.5% strikeout rate over 185 plate appearances in pinstripes. His OPS predictably landed at .641, right around his career road number, as his power disappeared outside an environment where gravity ceases to exist.

Despite that, some still took a positive outlook on the move, citing McMahon's defense — which, while excellent, is far from prime Brooks Robinson — and the improvement over Peraza. However, when the bar is already on the floor, it isn't hard to clear. The cold, hard fact of the matter is that McMahon's performance in its totality wasn't worth very much.

And now the Yankees are stuck with him for two more years and will pay him $32 million for his services during that time. Keep in mind, the Yankees will be paying DJ LeMahieu $15 million not to play for them in 2026. While Stroman's money comes off the books, it's simply replaced by what the club owes McMahon to be average at best, putting the Yankees right back where they started last offseason.

They cried poor then and left a gaping hole on the roster for the first half of the season, and are now repeating history, leaving us to wonder what dire need will be left unaddressed because Cashman couldn't learn his lesson and not repeat history.