In any number of ways, 2025 marked an unusual year for the Colorado Rockies.
They were historically bad (43-119); they fired their manager, Bud Black, early in the season; they promoted more prospects than
they ever have; and now we wait as they begin the process of rebuilding the front office and the organization.
One other odd trend worth noting? They were active at the trade deadline, including the move that sent Ryan McMahon and Jake Bird to the New York Yankees. Bird’s fate remains uncertain. (He was not good after arriving in the Bronx and finished his season in Triple-A.) But McMahon’s story is a bit more interesting and worth studying for what it reveals about the Rockies at a number of levels.
I’m not going to spend much time analyzing McMahon’s 2025 as a Rockie because that will happen later in our “Ranking the Rockies” series. I’m more interested in comparing the Yankees’ deployment of McMahon with that of the folks at 20th and Blake.
McMahon finished his season with the Yankees worth 0.6 fWAR in 54 games. He hit four home runs and slashed .208/.308/.333 (84 wRC+). Additionally, he had a 11.4% BB% and a 33.5% K%. The Yankees viewed McMahon as a defensive-first player, and they routinely used him as a platoon player and placed him later in the batting order.
In other words, for the Yankees, McMahon was a role player. Did they want offense from him? Yes, absolutely. But their lineup was deep enough they could deploy him in a way that complimented their other offensive assets.
In terms of shoring up a sagging Yankees defense, McMahon delivered. In 54 games, he earned 7 DRS, second only to Cody Bellinger’s right field 8 DRS. His final Defensive Runs Above Average (Def) score? That would be 3.0, which ranked him fourth among all Yankees defenders.
Compare that, then, with his 2025 Rockies tenure.
As a Rockie this season, McMahon accumulated 1.3 fWAR. (Given that he played 100 games for the Rockies this season, it would make sense that his fWAR would be significantly higher than it was for the Yankees.) However, that fWAR ranks McMahon second on the 2025 Rockies roster, behind only Hunter Goodman (3.4 fWAR).
Yes, a player that spent one-third of the season with another team was the Rockies second-most valuable player. That’s how anemic the 2025 Rockies roster was.
With the Rockies, McMahon hit 16 homers. (Coors truly worked in his favor.) He slashed .217/.314/.403 (87 wRC+) with a BB% of 12.2% and a K% of 31.7%. Defensively, he earned 3 DRS, which tied him with Kyle Karros (who played 42 games) for the team lead, and a 5.1 Def score. That was third behind Brenton Doyle (7.3 in 135 games) and Ezequiel Tovar (5.7 in 95 games). He was — by far — the Rockies best defender.
Why does it matter?
It speaks to the Rockies’ lack of depth.
The Rockies needed McMahon to be a dude — the guy who could carry the team on his back. To his credit, McMahon gave it his best shot, but he just wasn’t that player. He is, at his heart, an elite defender and a streaky hitter with occasional power.
With the Rockies, that wasn’t enough. Their roster was so thin that they needed him to do more.
The Yankees, however, had more roster depth. (That happens when you’ve got players like Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Jazz Chisholm on your roster.) They didn’t need McMahon to be that guy. They just needed the elite defender.
(Frankly, they should try to trade for Ezequiel Tovar during the offseason to upgrade at shortstop, but I’ll leave that to our friends at Pinstripe Alley.)
McMahon was allowed to slide down in batting order, take his walks, and play exceptional defense.
Turns out, having solid roster construction and player development allows players like McMahon to play to their strengths rather than forcing them to try and do everything.
McMahon is a finalist for a National League Gold Glove — which is curious given that he was a better defender according to some metrics during his short time as a Yankee even though he played more defensive innings as a Rockie. (An interesting question for McMahon would be the extent to which no longer playing at elevation affected his defense.)
Probably, the award is going to Ke’Bryan Hayes, who was the best third baseman in the NL by a sizable margin.
None of this is intended as a criticism of McMahon. Rather, it’s an indictment of the Rockies’ thin roster, their poor player development, and their questionable use of analytics.
Ryan McMahon’s career — both as a Rockie and as a Yankee — is a testament to just how necessary this rebuild is.
Arizona Fall League
Salt River Rafters 11, Glendale Desert Dogs 3
The Salt River Rafters had another offensive field day, but the only Rockies prospect in the lineup was Charlie Condon (No. 2 PuRP). Condon went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, a walk, and a strikeout. However, two pitchers did come in later in the game.
RHP Cade Denton, whose last outing included a blown save and a loss after giving up five runs on two hits (namely a lead-losing grand slam) with two walks and three strikeouts, pitched three clean innings, only surrendering one baserunner on an error by second baseman Stanley Tucker of the Boston Red Sox in the sixth while striking out three. He induced four groundouts and two flyouts.
LHP Welinton Herrera (No. 21 PuRP) came in to pitch the eighth and ninth, and things were a little bumpier for him. He gave up a leadoff walk followed by a single, but then sent down White Sox left fielder Caden Connor on strikes and got St. Louis Cardinals’ right fielder Miguel Ugueto to ground into a double play. In the ninth, he struck out the side — two looking and one swinging.
Rox prospects Condon & Thomas showing out in Arizona Fall League | MLB.com
The kids, they are having themselves a stellar AFL.
Guardians’ assistant GM interviews for Rockies’ top baseball job | Cleveland.com
Last week when Matt Forman’s name dropped as part of the Rockies PBO/GM search, I had trouble finding details. Paul Hoynes, however, has more specifics.
Guardians urged to target young Rockies slugger | Guardians Nation
I’ll leave it to you to guess which Rockies slugger before reading the article, but the logic to me is unclear. (Also, I did not intend for this to be the “All-Guardians Suggested Readings,” but there’s just not a lot to work with right now.)
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