The Yankees are somehow already nearing the point of no return with Ryan McMahon

Ryan McMahon singled in his first at-bat of the 2026 season. Good, right? Well, then he'd go hitless over his next 22 at-bats before finally collecting a hit again on Sunday against the Miami Marlins. The New York Yankees don't seem too concerned. They should be.

The Yankees made a big deal about fixing McMahon over the offseason. The proposed solution was to narrow his stance, which was among the widest in the league. While employing the new stance, McMahon hit .170/.200/.277 over 50 plate appearances throughout spring training.

Aaron Boone has an explanation for the glacially slow start. He believes a breakout is coming. Sooner rather than later, McMahon will be the productive left-handed power bat they envisioned when they acquired him.

“He’s a little bit in-between,” Boone said. “He doesn’t want to chase or make bad decisions, which is great, but you’ve also got to go up there and let it rip. It’s an early-season scuffle. He’s really talented, [has] pop [and] does know the strike zone.”

To date, McMahon's 27.9% chase rate is slightly better than average. The issue is he's whiffing 34.7% of the time and striking out 37.9% of the time, both of which are among the worst marks in baseball.

The Yankees will need to pull the plug on Ryan McMahon soon, and his cold start is only part of the reason why

Since McMahon arrived in the Bronx and played his first game as a Yankee on July 25 of last year, he's hit .192/.304/.302 over 61 games and 214 plate appearances. Nearly half a season's worth of work, and he's been absolutely putrid with the bat. He's also struck out at a 34.1% clip over that span.

What the Yankees are finding out is that his splits outside of Colorado were no joke. As a member of the Rockies, McMahon had hit .216/.302/.362 away from Coors Field. Now that he's been even worse over an extended sample, it's reasonable to believe that's his ceiling rather than his floor. We've reached a point where his defensive prowess can't make up for his offensive impotence.

This has at least crossed the Yankees' minds. Over the offseason, rumors circulated that they were looking for a platoon partner for him. To an extent, we got that with Amed Rosario, but while Anthony Volpe is out and Jose Caballero is manning short, Rosario is otherwise occupied being the club's primary utility man.

Since the trade, he hasn't pulled his weight against righties, either. While it's a little better, he still is hitting just .208/.317/.338 while striking out 34.4% of the time against right-handed pitching. Forget a platoon, he needs to sit on the bench.

Unfortunately, the Yankees owe him $16 million for this season and another $16 million in 2027. If we look at New York's past history, we're a long way off from the organization pulling the plug. Just look at how long they pretended that DJ LeMahieu was a viable major league player before they finally admitted defeat.

McMahon is LeMahieu 2.0, minus the injuries (so far) ... except that he hasn't given the Yankees the peak that LeMahieu did when he first migrated over from Colorado.

Third base should be nearing the top of the Yankees' trade deadline priorities if it's not item number one. New York needs to accept that it whiffed on this one, and Brian Cashman needs to learn that sometimes, it's okay to trade for a rental. Unfortunately, the chances of the Yankees being that bold are slimmer than the chances of McMahon becoming a productive hitter. Neither condition is likely to change, and we just have to hope that it doesn't cost the Yankees too many games. It might already be too late.