Rocky mountains and infielder Ryan McMahon agreed to a six-year contract extension that guarantees McMahon $70 million, tweets Jeff Passan of ESPN. McMahon is represented by Wasserman.
Prior to this new six-year deal, McMahon was eligible for arbitration for the second time in his career and was projected by MLBTR writer Matt Schwartz to earn $5.5 million next season. The contract buys out his last two arbitration seasons and four potential seasons as a free agent. There’s no way to know exactly how much McMahon would have made in 2022-23 through arbitration, but using this projection and a ballpark estimate for the 2023 season, McMahon’s contract makes about $13-14 million per season as a free agent. The terms are roughly in line with some of the older deals we’ve seen for infielders with more than four years of experience, including Brandon Belt (six years, $79 million) and Brandon Crawford (six years, $75 million – also agreed by Wasserman).
McMahon, 27, had the best season of his career at both plate and glove in 2021. The former second-round pick batted .254/.331/.449 with 23 home runs, 32 doubles, triples, and six. stolen bases (in eight attempts). Park-adjusted metrics such as wRC+ (95) and OPS+ (98) both showed McMahon’s overall contribution at bat was slightly below league average, but given the strength of his gloves, he still proved to be very valuable.
McMahon not only provided the Rockies with versatility by earning 368 innings at second base and 842 innings at third base—he did so by playing both positions at a level worthy of awards. McMahon registered a whopping nine defensive saves in just that tiny sample of 368 innings at second base, and he racked up 13 DRS in the hot corner despite not playing a full roster of games there. Pretty much any metric one might prefer agreed that McMahon was outstanding with leather; he registered an Ultimate Zone rating of 6.1 and 2.9 at third base and second base, respectively, while Statcast credited him with 10 above-average outs at third base and two more at second.
It’s easy to imagine that with a full season of games in the hot corner in 2021 – Brendan Rogers he is expected to take second base with a free agent Jose Iglesias taking the reins at shortstop – McMahon could take home some equipment for that defensive prowess. He was already a 2021 Golden Glove finalist, though the man standing in his way is a very familiar face: a longtime teammate and five-time platinum glover. Nolan Arenadonow with the cardinals.
Like any long-term deal, the signing is not without risks for the Rockies. While McMahon’s strong defense and consistent walking rate (9.9% in 2021; 10% in his career) gives him a high level, the offensive gains made in 2021 will need to be maintained if the trade is to finish in favor.” Colorado”.
McMahon kept up his productivity by finally fixing some of the blatant strikeout problems that plagued him throughout his MLB tenure. From 2017 to 2020, McMahon missed 30.8% of his games at home, including a career-worst 34.2% in the shortened 2020 game list. That figure has dropped to a much more manageable 24.7% in 2021. McMahon has always had strength and a knack for making hard contact, so as long as he can hold punches, there’s good reason to believe he can still be productive enough. bat – at least against right-handed pitching. Left-hander McMahon hit just .229/.312/.353 against lefties in 2021 (173 plate appearances) and is a career hitter (.239/.310/.433) against one-armed opponents.
At the start of the 2021 season, the Rockies saw a head office reshuffle that resulted in the sacking of longtime general manager Jeff Bridich and the appointment of director of scouting Bill Schmidt on an interim basis. Rather than doing a search and looking for outside candidates, owner Dick Monfort instead removed the “interim” tag from Schmidt’s title before the season ended.
Schmidt, who has been scouting for the Rockies since 1999, quickly got to work, ensuring that several members of the Colorado roster stayed where they were. Trevor’s story apparently decided to move on for the rest of the year, and Rocks couldn’t shake the right side. John Gray in negotiations for an extension. However, they also managed to conclude long-term deals on Antonio Senzatela (five years, $55 million), catcher Elias Diaz (three years, $14 million) and now McMahon – in addition to re-signing first baseman CJ Kron even before it entered the market (two years, $14.5 million). This group is now joining the off-season subscriber Chris Bryant among the restructured core of the Rocky Mountains.