Colorado Rockies: Bud Black “loved” what he sees from Ryan McMahon

ST. LOUIS — On Sunday, Ryan McMahon rejoined the Colorado Rockies for his first Major League game in over a month. The left-handed hitting infielder doubled twice and announced that he doesn’t want to go back to where he came.

Where the Colorado Rockies infielder came from was Triple-A Albuquerque where he slashed a season-best .336/.357/.636 over the month of July. In fact, none of his other months in Triple-A even have his OPS within 200 points of this past one.

“It’s easy getting called up always, especially with the way the team has been playing,” McMahon told Rox Pile in an exclusive talk. “You just have to keep the good attitude going and help out anyway you can. The team is rolling, we’re having a lot of fun and we’re playing good ball. It’s been a fun 24 hours so far.”

When McMahon left the Rockies, they were going through a rough patch and had fallen to under .500. Since then, they’ve been 21-6, including Sunday’s game which featured McMahon.

But the point about McMahon is that this past month was the first time in 2018 where McMahon had pivoted his abilities against Triple-A pitching and earned a call-up because of performance and not necessity. The move that speaks to this was the debut of Garrett Hampson at second when DJ LeMahieu went down rather than a recall of McMahon.

"“Loved it,” Bud Black told the media in the Gateway to the West on Monday of McMahon’s look. “More than anything, I saw Mac ready to hit every pitch that was thrown to him. There was not a pre-meditated take or him working into his at-bat. We challenged him to be ready to hit every pitch when we sent him back to the minors.”"

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McMahon has played in 48 MLB games this year, sprinkled between stints with the ‘Topes. He has only amassed an OPS of .655 in those contests (20 starts.)

In the first game against the Cardinals with LeMahieu hurt and Trevor Story out of the lineup with a day off, McMahon is getting the start against the Cardinals as Hampson moved over to shortstop.

“Not (making) any crazy changes. Just focusing on stepping straight,” McMahon said. “I felt like I was getting long and twisty earlier this season so I feel like just getting more swings and pitches helped that.”

McMahon finally getting consistent playing time in the minors seems to have paid off, whether he sees his adjustment or not. The Rockies skipper points out why the change he sees is important.

"“In the big leagues, you got to be ready to see every pitch,” Black said. “The best pitch you see might be the first one and you have to be ready to hit it. If you don’t, you’re down 0-1 and that’s not ideal.”"

If the once-highly regarded prospect McMahon can play like he did Sunday at first or second or even third, down-the-stretch, the Rockies are adding a big bat to the lineup.