Yankees insider all but confirms Ryan McMahon trade was a waste

If New York Yankees fans need more evidence that the Ryan McMahon trade was regrettable, Chris Kirschner of The Athletic has the goods. When asked during a recent mailbag segment about the Yankees possibly replacing Ryan McMahon at third base, Kirschner suggested that it’s likelier the Yanks will platoon the position in 2026.

Kirschner pointed to the right-handed hitting Amed Rosario as a sensible platoon partner for McMahon, but didn’t rule out Japanese free agent Kazuma Okamoto.

Yankees' potential platoon plans for Ryan McMahon expose a mistake of a trade

It’s not the idea of McMahon sharing reps at third base that’s a dreary outcome for the Yankees; it’s that they are paying him $32 million over the next two seasons to potentially do so.

When Yankees general manager Brian Cashman traded for McMahon before the deadline, Cashman appears to have been operating under some shady assumptions. One of them was that McMahon’s bat — which was miraculously designed to fail at Yankee Stadium — would awaken from its 2025 slumber and bolster New York’s lineup.

Surprise, surprise: McMahon ended up slashing .208/ .308/ .333/ .641 after the trade, with further statistical details of his struggles only adding to the cringe — a 33.5 percent strikeout rate and a .534 OPS against lefty pitching.

Adding insult to the injury of this seemingly flop of a deal, Griffin Herring (one of the two arms exchanged for McMahon) continued to flash brilliance with a new club.

The same can’t be said for McMahon, who looked like a shell of himself (at least offensively) in a Yankees uniform as compared with his Rockies threads. 

If McMahon’s plate woes continue into 2026, Cashman will have made an error that has a handful of ugly consequences, one of them being the potential blocking of No. 1 prospect George Lombard Jr. from a big-league spot. With McMahon and his platoon buddy holding down third base over the next couple of seasons, where is Lombard supposed to fit? If the Yanks are planning to have an infield spot open up from a Jazz Chisholm Jr. departure, well, that’s another bad decision of its own.

Here’s another possibility to consider for McMahon, though, and it’s not for the pessimistic at heart. Suppose he does yank himself out of the plate doldrums, and his bat awakens in 2026 in the way that Cashman wistfully envisioned. We’ve seen new Yankees take a season or more to acclimate themselves to the legendary aura of Bronx baseball and all that that brings (see: Carlos Rodón).

McMahon is 159 at-bats into his Yankees legacy. That’s a large sample size if you’re looking to discredit Cashman, and a small sample size if you’re looking to be open-minded (and perhaps foolish) enough to allow for a McMahon blossoming in 2026. Stranger things have happened.