Machado: ‘No idea’ on progress of trade talks
WASHINGTON » He was thinking about it Monday, as he will Tuesday, when he buttons up a gray, black and orange uniform with the number 13 upon it.
He will take one more look at the bright script reading “Baltimore” rising across his proud chest. He will wonder why the Orioles never did make that phone call he says they promised him early in his career, the one with an offer of a contract that would have made him theirs for life. He will take his spot at shortstop, and sometime within the first three innings, the only Orioles representative will enjoy an All-Star Game at-bat, hitting seventh for the American League at Nationals Park.
Then, unless every signal he is receiving, and the one he effectively let slip Monday is wrong, Manny Machado will be traded.
“I would love to stay in Baltimore,” Machado said, in a media-day swirl. “It’s where I grew up. They gave me the opportunity to be the player I am. They gave me the chance this season to go to shortstop. I will forever be grateful.
“If I am traded, I can’t answer for that. But I will be happy to put on this uniform for one last time, if that’s what it is. And I will enjoy it as much as I can.”
He’s a developing Hall of Famer, a free-agent-to-be and a potential $400,000,000 property. And he is playing for a lastplace team that must recoup something soon or let him leave for nothing. So traded, Machado will be. And he will be traded soon, as he more than hinted with his “one last time” comment.
What’s next? “Honestly, I have no idea,” he said.
He has some idea. He will be traded to a contender, for there would be no reason for any other team to trade prospects for a player who keeps insisting he wants to experience free agency. He will be traded to a team with money, for not even a contender would part with the level of talent the Orioles will command just for a player guaranteed only to play for them for fewer than 70 games. And all else equal, the O’s would likely bounce him out of the American League. So with that, forensic tradeology has revealed he will wind up with the Phillies, Brewers or Dodgers.
Yet why was it, anyway, that Machado “liked” an Instagram post of him photo-shopped wearing a Yankees uniform?
“That was just a mistake,” he said. “I was scrolling down to see pitchers. I like a lot of the teams, to be honest. I’ve seen Dodgers, Milwaukee, Philly mentioned. It’s been going on since, what, the winter meetings? Sometime in December? We like all three. We like them all.”
Again, a slip: All three. Not four. And there were the Phillies, landing on a musical chair. Why he mentioned Los Angeles and Milwaukee first can ignite speculation. Maybe he was going in alphabetical order. But the Phillies are on his mind. If he had his choice? “I don’t have a choice,” he said. “So I don’t think about it. I just do the things I can control, like being a good person and being a good player. At the end of the day, I try not to talk about it. But it’s just part of it.
“I’d like to turn on the TV and just watch great plays from around the leagues. But I just keep hearing trade rumors about me.”
That won’t last much longer. Every indication, every whisper and every report Monday was that Machado has played his last game as an Oriole. But while he is not in control this time, he will be when his contract expires and he has the right to pick where he plays in 2019 and beyond.
“I would really like to test free agency, but you never know what happens,” he said. “I don’t think too far ahead. I’ll try to help the team win any way I can.”
Machado will go wherever he is traded. But he will do more than just try to help that team win. He promises to use the opportunity to sightsee, to absorb everything about the organization, then get to know the players and the facilities and the trainers and the fans. And if he is satisfied, it could help convince him to make a longer-term commitment.
“You know what?” he said. “The effect would be an interesting thing because I could kind of see the organization first-hand, see what happens for sure.”
With Andy MacPhail, Matt Klentak and Joe Jordan prominent among Phillies executives with experience in the O’s organization, Machado could have a quick comfort level in Citizens Bank Park. That has been viewed as a Phillies’ strength as they try to give Gabe Kapler one more power hitter with which to help him hold onto first place in the Nationals League East. But asked if he had a good relationship with the Phillies’ executives, Machado didn’t exactly sound like they exchange birthday cards.
“I don’t know about a ‘good’ relationship, but I know them, yes, of course,” he said. “We go way back. Joe was one of the guys that drafted me. Andy was there when I signed as well. So we have a decent relationship.”
That decent relationship could be strengthened, and soon. The Phillies have the prospects, the motivation and the hands-on-hips stare from Middleton to make the deal happen.
“It crosses my mind all the time that I don’t get traded at all and I stay with Baltimore,” Machado said. “That’s a possibility. I would love that. I wouldn’t have to move and deal with headaches. I would just be home.
“But at the same time, we have to be realistic.”
And the reality is that Tuesday, he will represent Baltimore for the final time. And that by Friday, he will be representing another team for the first time.