When the New York Yankees traded for Ryan McMahon, the idea was to bring in a left-handed hitter who could use that short porch in right field to his advantage.
While McMahon has always been known for his defensive play, he wasn't a horrible hitter for the Colorado Rockies. There were some concerning signs in Colorado at times, as he wasn't elite, but he wasn't nearly as bad as he's currently playing. Unfortunately, McMahon is now the guy that all Yankees fans have their eyes on, as he hasn't been able to do anything on the offensive side of the baseball to start the season.
While it's been very concerning, there are some positives to take away from some of McMahon's recent comments. When asked about how he can fix it, he didn't exactly know, which was concerning, but he didn't hide from the fact that he's not playing at the level he knows he's supposed to in the Bronx.
“If I knew,” he told reporters, per The Athletic, “I don’t think I’d be in the slow start. I’m grinding. I’m not happy about it. I’m sure other people aren’t.”
Manager Aaron Boone made it clear that this is about timing more than anything else.
“(McMahon is) a good major-league hitter,” Boone said. “It’s 10 games in, OK? He’s scuffling right now, but the reality is, the last three games, he’s been on base four times too, with walks and hits and big at-bats.
“We want him to improve — even who he’s obviously been in his career, and he’s off to a slow start right now. But a number of our guys are, as well. He’ll get it rolling and (I) trust that he will, especially against some of these good right-handed matchups.”
From Boone's perspective, those comments are more than fair. We have to understand that we're not even a few weeks into the season, and McMahon having a bad 10-game stretch in the middle of July wouldn't get nearly as much attention as what it's getting right now. However, this isn't necessarily just a 10-game stretch problem. Again, McMahon has never been this bad, but we're not exactly talking about Aaron Judge offensively here.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “it’s about the team winning. I’ll keep working and try to turn it around.”
I wouldn't panic just yet if I were McMahon and the Yankees, but if this continues on for another few weeks, there might have to be some questions that need to be answered.