Inside the long journey of Colorado's bright young star

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – I first met Ryan McMahon five years ago in my dusty hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado.

The night before, the 18-year-old kid from Cali had showcased every tool in his belt with a couple of flashy plays at third and a walk-off base hit up the middle that came after fouling off at least 10 pitches before getting one he could handle. Every tool, that is, except the one I would come to learn was the most important.

As he showed me the marks on his bat from each of the previous night’s foul balls, we chatted about his feelings on becoming a pro, choosing baseball when he could have been a quarterback at a prestigious college, his approach to the game, getting to know teammates that included Jon Gray, Raimel Tapia, Carlos Estevez, Jordan Patterson, Zach Jemiola and Dom Nunez, all of whom he is still close with.

I was struck by how forthcoming, engaging, cerebral, and kind the young man was. I had to double check my program to remind myself that he was still a teenager.

It’s all so fresh and vivid that it feels like it happened yesterday. But then you see how far McMahon has come—all the time and hard work he has put in from that moment to this one—and it feels like an entire lifetime ago.

We ran into each other a few years later at a sports bar in Scottsdale and it occurred to me that, despite having been a pro ballplayer with a decent signing bonus and talent pouring out his ears, this was likely one of his first times out for a beer. Ryan McMahon was obliterating box scores and climbing up prospect lists, and he was still becoming an adult.

This time a year ago, McMahon was preparing to be sent back to Double-A Hartford following what far too many folks had deemed a down year. He tumbled off of Top 100 lists and some pundits even began to compare him to highly-touted position players that stalled out for the Rockies over the past decades, never making their way to MLB.

At BSN Denver, we disagreed, writing:

It might be tempting to see a “down year” and move McMahon’s estimated MLB arrival back a year or more, but we don’t think that’s what will happen with him and why we have him in our Top 10.

We expect big things from him in the near future, wherever he ends up landing. If he takes full advantage of the run he’s about to get and can parlay that into a strong start to the 2017 season, McMahon could make his debut as early as September of this year. A left-handed power bat can really help down the stretch. If all goes well, he could make himself a candidate for the starting lineup in 2018.

But however you viewed his 2016 campaign, he still had plenty to prove. And boy did he ever.

McMahon practically melted Double-A and then Triple-A, blazing a path to the big leagues that simply couldn’t wait for a more traditional September call-up. Once he got there, he found himself in a role he has never been in before. In as good of a rhythm as a ballplayer can be in, he was suddenly asked to spend most of the game sitting on the bench, hoping to get one at-bat, if any.

He played in 17 games, getting just 24 at-bats, collecting only three base hits.

The season ended, and once again, McMahon had a lot to prove.

He showed up to spring training 2018 in his very best form, pacing the Cactus League in hitting for most of his campaign. He showed brilliant work at the plate and in the field, earning his spot on the Opening Day roster at the ripe age of 23-years old.

“Just another year growing up as a person and as a ballplayer gave me a new outlook on this whole thing so I think I came in more confident,” he says.

Manager Bud Black agrees. “From the get-go, you could tell that Mac had a good winter,” says Black. “Physically, coming into spring training, he was in great shape. He spent most of the winter down here in Scottsdale, here at our complex working both in the weight room and in the cage. And I think it showed. He’s got a prolific swing. The early part of spring, the bat speed was there, he was squaring up pitches, and the defense is what I was impressed with more than anything. His ability to look comfortable at first base, the way he moved around the clubhouse with much more confidence than what I saw last year. He’s becoming a confident, more mature player.”

Though his time was limited, McMahon attributed a great deal of that confidence to getting a taste of the big leagues while helping a group of vets that will now take him under their wings.

“I’m still learning a lot from these guys,” he says. “They handle their business like professionals and I’m just kind of hopping along with them. Gonna enjoy the ride and hopefully just take the good things they do and apply it to how I do things.”

He got his MLB debut out of the way in Florida on August 11, 2017. It’s a special moment in the life of any ballplayer. But for a player with an insane amount of talent coursing through his body—a player who’s current Wikipedia page is exactly seven sentences long—it really is just the beginning.

McMahon says he feels a “sense of pride” for making the roster out of the gate and admits that he is looking forward to the pomp and circumstance. “I have heard it’s pretty cool,” he says. “I’ve heard it’s a pretty big deal up in Denver. I’ve seen pictures but that doesn’t do it justice.”

No, it does not.

And that’s kinda how I feel watching this kid grow into a man, closing one long chapter in his life as he opens a new one with endless possibilities. It’s hard to do it all justice, but the baseball season starts tomorrow, and he can let the bat and glove do all the talking.

It’s unclear what role he will play in 2018 or how many opportunities he will get to let his talents shine, but one thing has been made abundantly clear; Ryan McMahon is a major leaguer.