TAMPA, Fla. — There wasn’t much time for Ryan McMahon to be sentimental after being traded from the Colorado Rockies to the New York Yankees on July 25, 2025. Being acquired in the middle of a postseason chase, McMahon had to turn the page quickly from the Rocky Mountains to the Big Apple. 

“They have a really good clubhouse here, and it’s really easy to seamlessly slide in,” McMahon told The Denver Gazette on Saturday after finishing his spring training duties as New York’s designated hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays. “I had guys check on me. I had (Aaron) Judge making sure I was taken care of. I had (Giancarlo) Stanton, (Paul) Goldschmidt, all the other guys, they were very good about saying, ‘Hey, this is the Yankees. This is a different tier, a different level. And if we can help, we’ll help in any way.’” 

Once he arrived in New York, McMahon slashed just .208/.308/.333 in 185 regular-season at-bats as the Yankees lost the tiebreaker to the Blue Jays for the American League East title.  

In the AL Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, however, McMahon endeared himself to Yankees fans by not only going 3-for-10 at the plate with a solo home run but also making a highlight-reel catch by going over the rail of the third base dugout in the decisive Game 3 of the series. 

McMahon jokes that he still gets text messages with clips of that play, but he’s also ready to move ahead with his first full season with the Yankees. 

A fresh start in the Bronx includes a change in his batting stance, something that has been in the works for McMahon since the Yankees were ousted from the postseason in the American League Division Series. 

The key to the new stance is keeping McMahon’s feet closer together and not letting his stance get too spread out. A closer stance will hopefully help McMahon keep his swing from expanding and cut down on his strikeouts, which reached 32.3 percent last season, the most from McMahon in any 162-game campaign. 

“If you look at video of me throughout my time in Colorado, there are times where I’m definitely closer together, and usually I was hitting pretty good,” McMahon explained. “The wider I got, I had to have more feel to get on the ball. And last year, I didn’t have much of that, so it’s just giving me a little bit more of a sturdier base, something a little bit more consistent. 

“Working through that, it helps my hips and keeps my hands from going too far away. There are a lot of things that it should clean up. I like how it feels.” 

Not only is McMahon trying a new stance this season, but there’s also a chance that McMahon could find himself playing a new position as well. On Tuesday, when the Yankees play Team Panama in a warmup game before the World Baseball Classic begins, the plan is for McMahon to start at shortstop. 

New York’s plans at shortstop are unclear with Anthony Volpe still recovering from shoulder surgery, so McMahon may be shifted over from third base to help fill the void. McMahon has a total of three innings covering two games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season at shortstop during his nine-year MLB career. 

“That’s why I want to get him out there this spring, especially considering the iterations of our roster coming out of camp,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Sunday’s game. “His ability to go do that maybe allows you to go in a different way. We’ll see. He hasn’t done it yet, but I expect he’ll be fine there as natural as a fielder as he is.” 

McMahon said he’s ready for the challenge, saying he considers himself “a baseball player” more than a third baseman. 

“Do I think I’m going to be a Bobby Witt or Francisco Lindor at shortstop? No, I’m not dumb enough to think that,” McMahon smiled. “But do I think I could be serviceable if it came down to it. I think it’s just to have options, so they can kind of figure out what they want to do with the roster and things like that. I don’t think I’m going to be in there every single day.” 

Whatever happens, McMahon is excited about the challenges that await him and the Yankees in 2026 and the pressures that come along with wearing one of MLB’s most legendary logos. 

“New York is a different beast. Man, it’s a different beast,” McMahon said. “I think most of the fans in Denver know me and know I’m going to try as hard as I can, especially on defense. I think that’s how you show you’re a good teammate. You care about your guys on the mound and, no matter what the score is, play as hard as you can.”