Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Machado close enough for Klentak to a cut
PHILADELPHIA » Manny Machado dragged a chair from the Baltimore Orioles’ clubhouse into the shower area Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park. There, he would sit for much of the early evening, preparing for his most important chore of the next two days. There, he would be sure to look his best.
Eventually, he would resurface, his hair newly trimmed, his on-site barber having proven that not everyone in the O’s traveling party was having a sloppy year. Since Machado would send word that, on this Tuesday, he would only do interviews in Spanish, his fresh hairdo would be his only early message. So if 25,000 people were about to imagine how fine he would look in a pinstriped, red uniform, Machado would make it plain that he looked clean, too, in black and orange.
A top-five talent in the game, just 25, and about to become a free agent, Machado will not much longer be an affordable luxury for a Baltimore operation that needs reconstruction. For that, he is almost certain to be traded before the July 31 trade deadline. And because Matt Klentak has been happily backed into meeting his end of a wink-wink bargain with Gabe Kapler, the Phillies are expected to participate in the auction.
That bargain, in so many words: Play well, show improvement and nudge into NL East contention, and then the front office will do what it can to add talent in the second half of the season. And since the Phils had just played .500 in a 42game stretch that Klentak had realized was challenging, there he was Tuesday, close enough to Machado to identify the brand of the shortstop’s after-shave. Where was the confusion? “We identified that 42game stretch as probably being the most challenging part of our schedule,” Klentak was saying in the Phils’ dugout before the game. “And at the time we said if we can keep our heads above water for those 42 games, and then Part B is to get on a roll in July. Then that would put us in a good position heading into the end of the month. To the credit of all 25 guys here and our manager and coaches, they absolutely kept their heads above water for 42 games. We finished 21-and21 against some really, really good opponents. So now part B comes up, which we kick off tonight. We kick out of a July stretch.
“We’ve got to keep playing good ball and put ourselves in a position to potentially do something later in the month. But I am very, very pleased with the way our guys battled. And a lot of those games were not easy games. We had some tough losses. We had some great wins. We had some extra-inning games. It was a grind, and our players were very resilient the whole time.”
Yes, that was a sly little Plan B Klentak jammed in there, the kind of fine-print saver that will serve him well in his developing career as a contract-author. The Phillies were satisfying through June. But if they were to stumble in July, well, the trade-deadline mandate could change. Rules and good professional manners will prevent Klentak from openly recruiting Machado, the left-side infielder who was hitting .310 with 21 home runs and 59 RBIs as he rolled into Philadelphia for two games. But it was notable that Klentak was similarly available for questioning when the Phillies were recently in Baltimore, and that Andy MacPhail and Joe Jordan were on the trip. All have a history with the Orioles organization. And that was MacPhail seen exiting the Baltimore clubhouse before it was open to the press Tuesday, almost certainly after having a visit with Buck Showalter, whom he’d hired to manage the O’s in 2010. There is even a theory that says one reason the Phils hired Jake Arrieta for two years is because he once was Machado’s teammate in Camden Yards.
Some of that is coincidence, some urban legend. Some, though, is fact. “I think a lot of us that left the Orioles took a lot of pride in the success that the organization had,” Klentak allowed. “Not that we’re responsible for it, but knowing that we had at least some small part in it through Joe’s drafts, which included Machado and (Zach) Britton and (Matt) Wieters and (Dylan) Bundy, a bunch of others, to watch them go to the playoffs three different times was pretty cool. It would’ve been cooler if we were still there to enjoy it, but it was great for the organization. They’ve had some really good players.”
But … but … but … what about Machado?
“Yeah, I know what you’re asking,” Klentak said, to some laughter. “I heard the question the first time.”
He heard it once, heard it again, and will hear it until the deadline or until Machado is traded to a franchise convinced it will contend for a championship. Since Machado is unsigned after this season, Klentak must be careful not to vandalize his farm system for a twomonth rental. But that twomonth rental can inspire a fan base that has been slow to accept the Phils’ long, long waiting game. That roar for Machado during pregame introductions Tuesday was not just from the many visiting Baltimore fans.
“A lot of phone calls, a lot of texts,” Klentak said of his recent workload, not necessarily as it relates to Machado. “I don’t know that it’s radically different from what we’ve experienced in prior years at a similar time. There are still some teams that are trying to figure out what their strategy is going to be. Some have already declared and been pretty aggressive in their phone calls.
“But we’re still figuring it out here.”
In that other dugout, however, he should have found his answer: It’s time to cut loose.
Contact Jack McCaffery @jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery