DENVER -- Following the Rockies’ 5-3 loss to the Dodgers at Coors Field on Thursday afternoon, Ryan McMahon stood at his locker as the media gathered around him.

He politely asked someone standing between him and the nearest trash can to move aside so he could toss an empty Gatorade bottle into the receptacle.

“Heads up,” he said. “Coming right over you.”

Then he announced the outcome of his eight-footer before it clanged off the front of the can:

“Short.”

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“Short” is perhaps one way to describe McMahon’s career so far -- short of expectations, that is. With a sweet left-handed swing and a penchant for going on tremendous tears at the plate for weeks at a time, not to mention sterling defense at third base, he has had the Rockies and their fans seeing multiple All-Star selections in his future.

While he’s shown glimpses of what the Rockies have dreamed he could be, McMahon entered this season never having posted a league-average OPS+ or higher.

But he showed on Thursday why 2024 may be different.

In the seventh inning, he made one of the finest defensive plays of his career, a beautiful back-handed grab of a Miguel Rojas ground ball down the line that was followed by a perfect jump-throw to first to get Rojas by a step.

Defensive brilliance is nothing new for McMahon -- since his first full Major League season in 2019, he ranks fourth among third basemen with 50 defensive runs saved. Since ’20, he ranks fifth among all position players with 46 DRS.

The area in which he’s been inconsistent has been hitting. He’s had his ups and downs in 2024, just like in past seasons. But this year, the downs haven’t been as prolonged, nor as deep.

“I think I just have a better idea of what makes me successful,” McMahon said. “ … I think that even when I lose it, I’ll find it a little bit quicker now.”

He had it in the eighth inning on Thursday, when he crushed a 462-foot shot into the second deck in right-center field for his 13th home run of the season. That ties him with the Cubs’ Christopher Morel for the National League lead among third basemen.

McMahon also ranks among the league leaders at the hot corner in batting average (.274, second), on-base percentage (.349, second), slugging percentage (.477, third), RBIs (40, third) and runs scored (40, second), to name a few categories.

McMahon, as he has in the past, said sequencing at the plate is his biggest key -- keeping his lead foot, hips and hands moving in that order like a well-oiled machine when he’s taking a cut in the batter’s box.

The question now is: Will McMahon earn an All-Star selection?

“I think [McMahon and Ezequiel Tovar] have been our most consistent day-in, day-out performers,” said manager Bud Black. “For me, I think both those guys should be in consideration for the All-Star team. I mean, it’s unlikely that they’re going to get voted in in the fan vote. It’s more likely to come from the players and the coaches and the managers.

“Let’s hope that’s the case.”

The case for McMahon to be named an All-Star for the first time is a strong one, though the Phillies’ Alec Bohm is having an outstanding season and fan favorites such as Austin Riley, Nolan Arenado and Matt Chapman, while having down years at the plate, always stand a good chance to be chosen.

Whether the 29-year-old McMahon earns that first All-Star selection or not, expectations have never bothered him. With that swing and some of the sensational stretches he’s put together at the plate over the years, those expectations have been high.

“I’m sure they were [high],” McMahon said. “I don’t really think about those a lot, man. My job is to show up and play baseball. I’m trying to do that every single day. I think I’ve taken a couple of trips around the league now, and I think I just have a little bit more information to fall back on and better plans of how to succeed.”

McMahon and Tovar, who is having an excellent sophomore campaign so far by adding power at the plate to his already stellar defense at shortstop, have the best chance of representing the Rockies in Texas come mid-July.

In McMahon’s case, maybe 2024 is the year he doesn’t fall short.