Yankees Have to Hope Team Will Get Desperate to Make Needed Trade of Bust

The New York Yankees have many difficult offseason decisions, but one should be pretty straightforward. 

There's no reason Ryan McMahon needs to stay on this team, since even trading for him at the 2025 MLB trade deadline made little to no sense. 

The harsh reality is that a guy like McMahon has never been much of an offensive threat, and while he's one of the best defenders in baseball at his best, that doesn't do much for New York right now. 

The Yankees have had some bad defensive showings over the past couple of years, and you could even argue that it was part of why they lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024, but the Yankees need to bring in guys who can hit. 

Unfortunately, McMahon isn't that, and his now-average defense hasn't really done much to help his cause. 

As for how the Yankees can move on from him, finding a trade partner might not be the easiest thing in the world, but according to The Athletic's beat writer for New York, the team will at least try to move on from him.

“He’s also been terrible offensively since joining the Yankees at the 2025 trade deadline, posting a 78 wRC+, the 39th-ranked mark among MLB third basemen with at least 350 plate appearances during that span. 

“The Yankees may try to find a team willing to trade for McMahon while they eat a sizable portion of his salary and search for an upgrade. Anthony Volpe and José Caballero could be on the roster as potential platoon partners should the club bring in a different third baseman, though the Yankees seem to think that Volpe would make a better second baseman and that Caballero would be better served in a full-time utility role,” Brendan Kuty wrote.

As crazy as it might sound to some, I'd even go as far as to say that keeping Volpe on the roster over McMahon and allowing Volpe to start in the infield would be a better decision. 

Volpe is much cheaper, younger, and is coming off a great postseason. Perhaps when he was sent down to Triple-A, he figured some things out and that's all he needed to do. 

At this point in McMahon's career, we know exactly what he is, and he's not going to help.