McMahon motivated by slide into MLB draft’s second round
The first day of the draft came and went and Chris McMahon didn’t get the phone call he wanted or excepted.
Instead, the University of Miami right-hander — ranked as the MLB draft’s 30th-best prospect by Baseball America — didn’t hear his phone buzz until the Rockies dialed him up Thursday night. They selected him in the second round, as the 46th overall pick.
McMahon thinks he’s better than that.
“I was not happy Wednesday night,” McMahon admitted Friday during a Zoom call. “It was hard to sleep. But you just have to keep going, obviously, and keep proving people wrong. Show them that I didn’t deserve to slide into (the second round). I plan on doing that.”
The chip on McMahon’s shoulder should help him in Colorado, where a pitcher’s competitive spirit and mental toughness are every bit as important as a mid90s fastball and sharp breaking slider.
“That (motivation) fits with me pretty well,” said McMahon, a 6-foot-2, 210-pounder, whose fastball has been clocked at 92-94 mph and has touched 97. “People who have watched me in college — in various tough situations, men on base and less than two outs — have seen me bear down.”
Last summer, McMahon led Team USA with 15 strikeouts in just 12 innings pitched. He continued his growth with the Hurricanes in the abbreviated 2020 season, going 3-0 with a 1.05 ERA in four appearances, with 38 strikeouts and just five walks over 25 M innings. McMahon went a combined 7-3 with a 3.28 ERA with 123 strikeouts to 37 walks in three seasons for the Hurricanes.
Miami, which competes in the ultra-competitive Atlantic Coast
Conference, was loaded with pitchers, including sophomore right-hander Slade Cecconi, who was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in Competitive Balance Round A with pick No. 33 on Wednesday night.
“Pitching at Miami has helped out a lot,” McMahon said. “The ACC is a great conference, probably in the top three around the county, if not the top two. Week in and week out, every single game, you are going to face some of the top players. That’s helped raise my game.”
The Rockies were thrilled to find McMahon still on the board when pick No. 46 rolled around.
“We have been scouting Chris since high school,” said Bill Schmidt, the Rockies vice president of scouting. “So this wasn’t just over the last year, this has been a four-year process with Chris.”
Were the Rockies surprised to see that McMahon was still available? “I wouldn’t use the word surprised,” Schmidt said. “There are a lot of good players in the draft and a lot of opinions on players. I can speak for others but I thought he was a good fit for us and we were happy he was there when it was our time to pick.”
McMahon’s pitching pedigree is solid. He throws a four-seam fastball, is working on a cutter that could become his best pitch, can snap off a decent slider and has been working on honing a changeup over the last year or so.
He’s also an excellent athlete. At West Chester (Pa.) Bayard Rustin High School, he was a soccer star and could have played at the college level. He can dunk a basketball and is a good golfer.
Over the last three months, golf has provided McMahon with a much-needed competitive fix. When the coronavirus pandemic shut down the Hurricanes’ season, he returned to his parents’ home in Pennsylvania and often walks the links with his father.
“I play a lot of golf with my dad and make sure he doesn’t beat me,” he said. “I have a lot of competitive energy kind of bottled up inside me right now. I’ve been getting a little angry with myself with some of the shots that I have had.”