Yankees Insider Reveals Trade Incoming...

An MLB insider has revealed that a New York Yankees trade is incoming. As the Yankees, they gave up two pitching prospects for a third baseman, and now, a year and a half later, they're reportedly ready to pay money just to send him out. As there's a report from Pat Ragazzo that the Yankees are probably willing to pay down to send out a player in Ryan McMahon so they can trade him and get him off the roster. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, this is the right move. for the Yankees, and the numbers make the case way better than I ever could. And I'm going to show you the receipts, the strikeouts, the road splits, and the one stat that makes this look closer than it really is. And here's the line that got him here. A .213 batting average, a .279 on base percentage, a .357 slugging percentage, a .635 OPS, and only 11 home runs in 2026. McMahon has struggled, and the Yankees are now having a trade imminent. Let's rewind to July 25th, 2025. The Rockies sent out Ryan McMahon to the New York Yankees for two pitchers, Griffin Herring and Josh Groves. And the Yankees, they took on the whole contract that Ryan McMahon had. And at the time, ESPN's Jeff Passan said there was no better fit for the Yankees. That's how this was sold. A former All-Star, a gold glove, a left-handed bat with real power. And to be fair, he didn't arrive as a project. He arrived as a former All-Star, and he came with a total of 34 outs above average at third base. That was supposed to be the safe, boring answer next to Aaron Judge, but it wasn't safe. The deal runs six years and is $70 million, and this coming season, 2027, is the last year of that contract at $16 million. Fans picked up on this problem fast. There's a comment from Richard Foglio on our last video who said, we need a third baseman outfielder and a catcher who can actually hit. And notice he didn't say a third baseman who could field. Nobody's asking for a glove here, though obviously the Yankees could use one as McMahon's glove was a little bit worse this year than prior seasons. They're asking for a glove here, Asking for a bat, because McMahon was an automatic out for the majority of this year. So the question isn't whether he was a reasonable pickup in July of 2025. The question is what 2026 told the Yankees, because the answer is in the numbers, and guys, it wasn't close. Start with the one that hurts the most. According to baseball savants, McMahon strikes out 32% of the time in 2026. That's in the bottom 10% of the league, and ESPN has been 106 strikeouts and 328 at-bats. That's a strikeout in almost a third of his at-bats. And here's the part people miss. He does still hit the ball hard. 49.3% of his contact comes off the bat at 95 miles an hour or more, which is in the 87th percentile. But his expected batting average, based on how hard, at what angle he hits it, is just 200. Hard contact, bad results, because he's not making enough of it. Then there's the road. McMahon has a .762 OPS at home, but a .502 OPS on a road. That is a 260-point gap. You can't win with that, and he's a left-handed batter who's supposed to be the platoon answer against left-handers. Savant has met a .509 OPS, and against righties, it's a .662. It's really not a huge jump, and to be fair, the one thing that he does do with a runner in scoring position, his OPS is a 768. With the bases empty, it's a .491. But that is a small sample of what his work is and a lot of what the work is for a 635 OPS. Pitch by pitch, it doesn't get better. His OPS against fastballs is a 608 against breaking balls to 396. And one for the irony final, against teams, against arms currently on the Colorado roster, the team that traded him, McMahon is hitting 115 and slugging. .192 over 57 plate appearances, it's his worst line against any club. So we put those together, a 32% strikeout rate, a 200 expected batting average, and a 635 OPS. That isn't a bad month. That's a full season of the same answer. Now, here's the history. Since 1996, only four Yankees have had a season of 350 plate appearances or more with a batting average of 215. or lower and an on-base percentage of 280 or lower. Stephen Drew in 2015, Giancarlo Stanton in 2023, Anthony Volpe in 2025, and Ryan McMahon in 2024. Now in June, the Yankees placed him on the 10-day injured list. Retroactive to June 22nd, his season never really got going again after that, and he can still drive the ball. I'll give him that. On September 2030, he had a home run at 109.1 miles per hour that traveled 332 feet. The ability to hit it hard is there, but the ability to do it often enough is not there. Now the glove as well. Everyone says the defense is the reason to keep him. Through mid-September, he had zero defensive runs saved and three outs above average. In 2025, those numbers were 10-7. He's fine at third. But we see from Sports Illustrated who nailed it. His defense does not make up for his offense, and if it once did... So let's look at the money, because why would any team pay to take a player like this? Because that $60 million is already gone. He's under contract whether or not he's playing third or sitting next to Aaron Boone or in a different jersey. That's a sunk cost. The only question is whether you spend it and also lose a lineup spot or pay part of it and get a better bat in his place. And why would anyone take him? At a discount, a one-year contract for a left-handed bat who hits the ball hard 49.3% of the time looks like a bounce-back bet, and teams do pay for those. The Yankees took on the full contract to get rid of him. Now the market tells them what it costs to undo, and here's how paying down works. The Yankees send cash, and the other team pays less than the full $60 million, and the Yankees, they swallow the rest. The more they eat, the more they can ask for back. Nobody has reported an amount, so anyone giving you a number right now is just guessing, but it will be a hefty amount. And it's not just McMahon. Fantasy nerds had McMahon and Trent Grisham at a combined $38 million in 2026 for a combined 1.2 wins above replacement. That is really, really just terrible, and this is what a lot of you are on. Pooberking wrote, We need consistent hitters in the form of a third baseman and catcher. Third base is the one spot where Yankees have no real answer, and the people watching every game see it. So paying down a piece of a one-year $16 million contract is not a punishment. It's rent on a better lineup. And is there a risk? Yeah, of course. Nobody has to take them. Nobody has reported a price. And if the Yankees pay down too much, then that's money they could have used on a real upgrade that now they can't. Brian Cashman said it on the day he agreed to his new contract, saying, We're paid to make very difficult decisions. This is one of those decisions, and it's one of the easier ones, we're being honest. But the other side of the risk is bigger. Another 360 plate appearances and a .635 OPS. So who plays third base, though? Because going into 2026, the plan was McMahon in the platoon with Amed Rosario. That plan did not work out the way the Yankees drew it up. Nothing's reported yet. But names of fans keep bringing up include Isaac Paredes, who I did a video on, and one commenter laid out his whole case on our channel for Isaac Paredes, and I'm not telling you who it is. The hole is real. Third base, the one spot where you can't point to a 20-27 answer on the roster right now. Some fans will probably say keep him as a platoon bat against right-handers. Savant had him at a .662 OPS against right-handers. That's not a platoon bat on a team with championship goals. That's just a bench player, and it's the same group making the call. Aaron Boone is back for 2027 and Cashman has a new deal. So this is a real test. Do they act on a mistake or do they wait for the next 360 plate appearances to prove it again? And the timeline matters. The Yankees off season has barely started. So a McMahon deal is the first domino and that will affect the other moves that they make. So here's a choice in front of Cashman. You trade them, you pay down the money or you just keep them and keeping them and you're paying $60 million to the 2026 version again, pay them down and you buy yourself a real shot. And I think about... Really what a clean answer would look like next April, and it would be a third baseman who makes contact, a lineup that doesn't carry a hole at a bottom, and $60 million that's no longer a problem for the Yankees. Now, before we do wrap this up, I do want to say shout out to the comments of the day of Gitmob. Or GitmobBob1714, I should say, saying the problem with Grisham is that Boone kept running him out there because he's a veteran until the philosophy changes, don't expect any championships. Yes, the Yankees do play a lot of veterans, and this isn't about McMahon being a bad player or a bad glove or anything like that. It's about the Yankees. They keep playing veteran guys. There's other moves they could make. There's other players they could play in that position, but they're not going to trust it fully. And that did cause a problem just because McMahon knows how to play the position. But I just can't see there being any real scenario. where McMahon is back next season, and paying a piece of $60 million to move on from a .635 OPS with a 32 strikeout rate and a 200 expected average isn't a weakness. It's the front office admitting the trade didn't work, fixing it, and moving on. So tell me in the comments, should the Yankees pay down McMahon's contract to move him? Yes or no? Like this video, subscribe, turn on post notifications. We got a ton of great videos. I just did a video on a trade report. It's on the screen now. Make sure to click that and continue watching. Go Yankees.