Colorado Rockies striking out on Ryan McMahon gamble

PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 22: Ryan McMahon #24 of the Colorado Rockies reacts against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on April 22, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 22: Ryan McMahon #24 of the Colorado Rockies reacts against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on April 22, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Batting .205 with four home runs, 16 RBI, and 16 runs scored in 132 at-bats with a strikeout rate of 32.6 percent, Ryan McMahon has been an absolute disappointment for the Colorado Rockies so far in 2023.

After an atrocious first month of the season, the Colorado Rockies have won a surprising eight out of 10 games in the month of May to raise their record to 16-22. While they have gotten contributions from a slew of different players in their recent run of success, Ryan McMahon has been missing in action, which is not what the Rockies’ front office had expected when they signed him to a six-year, $70 million contract extension before the 2022 season.

When the Rockies made the move, I asked the question in this article with our affiliate Roxpile.com whether or not it was too soon to extend him.

He had shown a ton of promise and had the potential to hit .270 and hit 30-plus home runs, but there were always consistency questions and his propensity to strikeout. He was also under team control until after this season, so it was a gamble to lock him up before the Rockies needed to.

In fact, RyMac reminds me a lot of another former Rockies’ third baseman who also showed a bunch of potential early in his career. So let’s do a blind look at the two players’ season to season stats with the Rockies:

Standard Batting
AgeGPAABRH2B3BHRRBISBCSBBSOBAOBPSLGOPSOPS+TBGDPHBPSHSFIBB
221724192310010055.158.333.211.54439410000
2391202181174291519101864.232.307.376.683726802012
241415394807012022124835156160.250.329.450.77988216141111
2552193172233761926011866.215.295.419.714807242010
261515965288013432123866259147.254.331.449.77998237144052
271535975296713023320677360158.246.327.414.7419721975030
2836142128152691416111349.203.275.383.657694950010

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Standard Batting
AgeGPAABRH2B3BHRRBISBCSBBSOBAOBPSLGOPSOPS+TBGDPHBPSHSFIBB
2235464339401900117.209.261.372.633571602000
238130426633691821041113094.259.349.455.80410212137014
24147491425749719325707456138.228.322.464.7859519775053
25121441386549914218615245110.256.338.443.7819717185058
264813612214196106321437.156.243.221.464202710002

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

The first set of stats are McMahon’s. The other set is from no other than Ian Stewart from 2007-2011. Stewart showed a ton of promise in his first few seasons in Denver, but then completely fell off the table. Had the Rockies had signed him to an extension after one of those decent seasons, just imagine how costly that would have been to the future of the franchise.

The Rockies didn’t make that gamble then and it paid huge dividends as they were able to trade him to the Chicago Cubs in return for some guy named DJ LeMahieu and, of course, Nolan Arenado came up through the farm system to put a stranglehold on the position.

This time, the Rockies appear to have struck out and will be stuck paying McMahon millions for the next handful of seasons while contributing little. There’s plenty of time for him to turn it around with him under contract for so long, but it is not looking promising.

Next. Bold predictions for May for every NL West team. dark