Machado deal started redesign, success falling into place for O’s
SAN DIEGO — On the television inside the Orioles’ clubhouse before Monday night’s game at Petco Park, a group of MLB Network broadcasters discussed whether the best team in the American League should call up the best prospect in baseball, wondering what 19-year-old Jackson Holliday could bring to Baltimore’s lineup. The segment came before the Orioles faced a player who they promoted in that aggressive fashion a little more than 11 years ago.
Manny Machado has grown a lot, as a player and a person, since he was a 20-year-old joining Baltimore straight from Double-A for its 2012 playoff push. He’s now in his fifth season with the San Diego Padres, with many more to come after he signed an 11-year, $350 million extension this spring. But his time with them thus far still leaves him nearly a full season’s worth of games short of the total he played with the Orioles after his August 2012 call-up.
His tenure in Baltimore ended just shy of six years later, when the Orioles started their rebuild by trading Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers amid their dreadful 2018 season, the first of four straight campaigns in which they finished with one of baseball’s five worst records. But five years later, they’re the leaders in the AL East, and Machado’s Padres are one of baseball’s biggest underperformers.
But he’s pleased to see that Baltimore’s process has paid off, saying that this year’s team reminds him of the group he was a part of that won more games than any other AL club from 2012 to 2016, a stretch that features the Orioles’ only three playoff berths in the past 25 years.
“It takes me back to when I played there, winning baseball, and obviously, they brought back that culture,” Machado said Monday. “It’s been a big sports city for a long time, so to see them go and clean house and rebuild that in a short period of time to be where they’re at today, it’s pretty impressive.
“It’s happened fast. I’ve never seen a team rebuild that quickly. … This year, they’ve shown that they could take the [AL] East. It’s impressive to see that, in such a short period of time, what they’re doing over there.”
Machado, who turned 31 last month, was a pending free agent when the Orioles dealt him to Los Angeles for five prospects, only one of whom is still in the organization. Righthander Dean Kremer is scheduled to start Wednesday’s series finale, which could present his first matchup with Machado.
But this week doesn’t represent Machado’s first reunion with his former team, with the Orioles hosting and visiting the Padres in 2019,
of the day, the quarterback connected with running back Justice Hill on a deep wheel route down the left sideline. But on the next three plays, he overthrew a streaking Zay Flowers, who had a step on fellow firstround draft pick Forbes; under-threw Odell Beckham Jr., allowing Forbes to recover and break up the play; and then overthrew an open Andrews.
“It was good to go against someone else instead of my teammates every day,” Jackson said. “[We can] see where we are before the season starts, seeing if our timing is down pat and stuff like that.”
The Ravens were also without a couple of key contributors to their offense Tuesday.
Though J.K. Dobbins came off the physically unable to perform list on Monday and was deemed by Harbaugh to be 100% healthy, the running back did not participate in team play. The Ravens are ramping him up slowly after he was absent from the first month of training camp and the offseason program during what was essentially a hold-in over his contract.
Rashod Bateman, who also came off the PUP list recently, also did not participate in team action. The Ravens are taking a cautious approach with the wide receiver as he works his way back from season-ending foot surgery last year and receiving a cortisone shot in the same foot in June.
But there were some other bright spots. Jackson connected with Beckham on one deep ball after the receiver beat cornerback Kendall Fuller. The ball looked to be underthrown, but Beckham adjusted to catch it.
Flowers, the Ravens’ first-round pick out of Boston College, also continued to impress. The best example came in one-on-one drills when he easily worked himself open on Jartavius Martin, causing the defensive back to slip and fall on a stop route.
“It makes my job a lot easier,” Jackson said. “Those guys are just flying around [and] making spectacular catches. As you can see — I know you guys have seen it — Zay is very shifty, like I said before. Odell and Mark [Andrews] are household names.”
Andrews, as has been the case throughout camp, unsurprisingly caught his share of passes as well.
Jackson and Andrews both came into the NFL in 2018, the tight end was the team’s leading pass-catcher a year ago and the dynamic between the two hasn’t changed — even if the offense around them has, with more playmakers in the fold. Andrews noted that Jackson’s understanding of the new offense and making it his own with input and control over play-calling has added another level to the scheme. That process has even included Jackson seeing a couple of routes on social media and sending them to quarterbacks coach Tee Martin, with offensive coordinator Todd Monken using the plays in practice.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Andrews said. “That connection is always going to be there.
“It’s going to be a special Lamar season.” Added Harbaugh: “He’s a guy [who] thinks about football a lot — it’s on his mind — and I think he always had his ideas. He had a couple good ones; I can tell you that. So, it was fun.”
The Ravens will practice against the Commanders again Wednesday in Owings Mills, with the teams meeting in the Ravens’ next preseason game Monday night at FedEx Field in Landover.