Colorado Rockies promote number three prospect Ryan McMahon
By Jason Burke
The Colorado Rockies are in possession of the first Wild Card spot at the moment, holding a one game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks. By calling up the red-hot Ryan McMahon, the Rockies look to keep it that way.
Ryan McMahon doesn’t get a lot of love on the national stage like Yoan Moncada, Rafael Devers or Cody Bellinger, but if he continues to scorch the ball like he has been in Triple-A, that should change pretty quick.
McMahon was selected in the second round of the 2013 draft, the same draft that netted them Jon Gray in the first round. He spent 2016 as part of the traveling show that was the Hartford Yard Goats, batting .246 with a .325 OBP, 12 homers and 75 RBI.
The 22-year-old left-handed bat started this season back with the Yard Goats, but got the call up to Albuquerque at the beginning of June where he set the Pacific Coast League on fire by hitting .375 with a .409 OBP, 13 home runs and 50 RBI in 59 games played. That’s good for an OPS of 1.034. According to FanGraphs, McMahon had a wRC+ of 161 to go along with a walk rate of 6.3% and a strikeout rate of 16.0%.
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In June McMahon was named the PCL Player of the Month after hitting .429 with 50 hits, 21 extra-base hits and 28 RBI.
In the minors this year, McMahon had split time between first, second and third with the majority of that time spent at first base. It’s safe to say he won’t be seeing much time at third with Nolan Arenado holding things down over there, save for an occasional day off. Second base should be fairly secure with DJ LeMahieu, which leaves first base and Mark Reynolds.
In the first half Reynolds hit .284 with 19 homers and 61 RBI, but in the second half he has fallen off of that pace a bit, batting .253 with four homers and 13 RBI. He’s also been a little below average defensively this season, coming in with a DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) of -4 and a UZR/150 of -2.1.
According to MLB Pipeline, McMahon grades as a 50 defender on the 20-80 scout scale and has made three errors at first base this season across 429 1/3 innings in the minors.
With Reynolds being a righty and McMahon a lefty, the most likely solution is a platoon situation, although both players have better splits against right-handers. Reynolds is much better against righties, batting .303 with 19 of his 23 homers coming against them, whereas he has hit just .204 against lefties.
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McMahon has been solid against both in Triple-A, batting .389 against righties and .311 against southpaws. If McMahon stays hot at the big league level, he could push Reynolds into more of a bench role and have that powerful bat become a big weapon come playoff time. With 48 games left in the Rockies’ season entering Friday, and the new call-up having played in 108 games in the minors, it’s likely he’ll get some extra days off–given that his career-high in games played is 133–in an effort to keep him fresh for October.