Where Have You Gone, Dustin Pedroia?

For decades, second basemen were the smallest players on the field. But with game strategies evolving, and double plays evaporating, the position is getting supersized.

Not long after the Colorado Rockies selected Ryan McMahon in the second round of the 2013 draft, the third baseman began casually, but regularly, asking the club’s farm director, Zach Wilson, about trying second base. That the 6-foot-2, 219-pound McMahon was a power-hitting corner infielder who hadn’t played second base since he was 12 years old was beside the point. “I just kept throwing it in there, kind of trying to be funny, but then it happened,” McMahon said, adding more seriously: “At that point, I was just trying to do anything I could to get to the big leagues. I felt like if I could play more positions that make me more valuable to the team.” In McMahon’s fourth minor-league season, at Class AA Hartford in 2016, the Rockies initially moved him from third base to first. It was only after he was cut from big league camp a year later that McMahon returned to Hartford and finally got his wish, spending some time at second. He made his major league debut later that season and, over the past five seasons, has spent more time at second than any other position.