The Baltimore Orioles have been shopping Manny Machado since the offseason, but it appears as though they might finally pull the trigger on a trade in the upcoming weeks.
The Chicago Cubs have had interest in Machado since the winter and reports have continually linked them to the star infielder throughout the first half of this season. The latest report reveals the Cubs as one of seven teams that have made a trade offer to the Orioles for Machado.
As you look at the playoff picture in the National League, it’s no surprise that six of the seven teams, including the Cubs, come from the NL.
Via Eduardo A. Encina of The Baltimore Sun.
The Orioles have received offers from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs, and the offers rank in that order of appeal, according to the source.
All the offers are said to be “very close” in appeal according to the source.
Well, at this point the Dodgers appear to have the best offer on the table, but as you see in the second sentence there, the offers all seem to be close in appeal.
Sooooooooo, there might still be a chance for the Cubs?
There’s no doubt Machado has put up some great numbers with just an awful team. So far in 2018, the shortstop has a slash line of .310/.380/.557, with 21 home runs and 60 RBIs, walking 40 times and striking out only 50 times.
Yet, he’s insisted that he will not move from the shortstop position, despite being the worst defensive shortstop in baseball.
No names have been revealed as of yet, but Encina did mention the following.
The players in the Dodgers’ offer to the Orioles are unknown, but their current offer did not include either top prospect outfielder Alex Verdugo or right-hander Yadier Álvarez.
The Orioles expressed interest in Verdugo and his name was discussed in talks between the teams, but Álvarez’s name was only bantered about briefly, the source said. Verdugo is ranked as the Dodgers’ second-best prospect, according to Baseball America, and Alvarez is ranked fifth.
Still, the Orioles’ desire is to acquire the top prospects or young controllable players available — with an emphasis on pitching and left-side infielders — in exchange for Machado.
The Cubs farm system isn’t deep in terms of highly-ranked prospects, so, I’m only speculating here, maybe Ian Happ has been dangled for Machado as the headliner from the Cubs?
There’s just no way that any team is going to give up top prospects for three months of Machado, so maybe that works in the Cubs favor if they can somehow get close to the other offers.
The thing is, though, Machado would obviously be a great addition, but there’s just no way he’s an upgrade defensively at shortstop. Not that I would be against him playing there, but if by any chance the Cubs do land him, he’d have to agree to move to third and maybe get a little playing time at shortstop. Move Bryant to the outfield and let Joe Maddon mix and match like he has for the past 3.5 years.
Again, the Cubs were named seventh in the list of eight teams making strong offers to the Orioles, so right now it is a long shot to see Machado on the North Side.
A deal might be getting done soon with someone, though.
The Orioles, who dropped to 40 games below .500 with Saturday’s 5-4 loss in Minnesota, are active in dialogue with several teams, and a deal could actually come together as soon as this weekend, said the source, although that seems unlikely.
On Friday, Theo Epstein said the following about the Cubs and what they intend on doing leading up to the trade deadline.
Theo sounded like nothing imminent on trade front. Duensing, Darvish etc probably forcing them to use up the whole month to assess. Oh, and he said no need for a bat so whoever wasted all that time on Machado IN MAY, shame on you. Ha.
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) July 6, 2018
#Cubs Theo: "I don't think this is the year we're going to be out front beating the market but I do think industry wide there will be a lot of activity well before the deadline."
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) July 6, 2018
We’ll see what shakes up over the next couple weeks.
