‘Saying goodbye wasn’t easy’
Orioles, Jones need to lay their cards on the table and figure out if he stays Machado at ease with Dodgers after emotional Orioles farewell
ow that the Orioles have committed to rebuilding and done most of their heavy lifting ahead of the nonwaiver trade deadline, everybody ought to take a breath and consider what really needs to happen next.
Here’s a thought: The Orioles and Adam Jones need to get real and figure something out that keeps him around for a couple more years.
It is widely assumed that the Orioles will deal Jones by the deadline because he’s going to become a free agent at the end of the season. That’s certainly a strong possibility if he’s willing to waive his no-trade protection, but it doesn’t have to go down that way.
Jones has been a fixture in Baltimore for a lot of reasons, not just the numbers on the back of his baseball card. He has become a major community figure and was a de facto team captain when many players his age were still worrying about the sophomore jinx.
He hasn’t said a lot on the subject, but it’s pretty obvious he feels that kind of stuff should matter when it comes time to talk contract. He has invested a lot in this area — in charitable work and even in a high-profile piece of real estate recently — so he can be forgiven for feeling like the
N|
PHILADELPHIA — In his last eight months as an Oriole — dating to December’s winter meetings when a trade first became a possibility — Manny Machado did everything he could to rise above the noise. But it was in a moment of silence the night of July 18 when he finally broke down, realizing he was no longer an Oriole when, packing up his locker inside an empty clubhouse at Camden Yards, he took off his nameplate.
“I took off my nametag and just lost it,” Machado said last week as a visitor at Citizens Bank Park. “I had been there for eight years and it’s just been … it was the first time I broke down. I had to get out of there because it was going to get really ugly.”
Machado, 26, is a Los Angeles Dodger now. He went from an Orioles team that was the worst in baseball to being thrust into a playoff race. He’s playing meaningful games in front of packed crowds. His new teammates have been TV: Radio: