Machado may be baseball’s best SS
BALTIMORE » Manny Machado stands now where he has stood most of his life: at shortstop. He is there by happenstance. Because a teammate is injured, he slid on over and did so seamlessly. Watch him play, and try to tell the Baltimore Orioles they need to move him back to third base. “He could be the best shortstop in the league,” one longtime scout said. “Name a player you’d rather have be your shortstop.”
Maybe Carlos Correa of Houston. Maybe. “Sure,” the scout said. “But it’s not a long list.” To be clear, the Orioles have a shortstop, J.J. Hardy, who is under contract for next season at $14 million and isn’t playing now only because of a fractured left foot. But put the whole whoplays-where issue aside for a moment. What Orioles fans are watching, on a nightly basis, isn’t so much the development of a 23-year-old shortstop but the development of a 23-year-old star, because Machado happens to be among the best players in baseball, position be damned. So toss out the list of shortstops, and pick a player — any position, any age — you would take to start a franchise. Bryce Harper, probably, and Mike Trout, likely. Again, maybe Correa, who’s more than two years younger than Machado. But after that?
“I’m excited to see what I can do going forward,” Machado said.
The Orioles are unconcerned. Even after a 1-for14 skid over the weekend, Machado entered Tuesday night’s series opener against Seattle hitting .333, slugging .653 and trailing only the ageless David Ortiz of Boston and Houston second baseman Jose Altuve among American Leaguers with a 1.040 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. After playing in 162 games a year ago, he again has started all 36 for the Orioles thus far and already has 15 doubles, 11 homers and 25 RBI. “When you’re good, you’re good,” Orioles center fielder Adam Jones said. “When you try and figure out reasons why, that’s just creating pointless rhetoric, I think. Just sit and watch him play and just embrace it. Don’t try and think too much about it. Just watch him play.”
Watching him play, right now, is at shortstop, where is both excelling and deferential. “I know it’s not going to be for long,” he said. “We all understand that J.J.’s the heart of this team. He’s the captain of the infield, so he’s always going to be missed.”
Still, when Hardy fouled a ball off his foot May 1 and was subsequently deemed out for six to eight weeks, Orioles Manager Buck Showalter and Machado had a discussion about how best to proceed. The Orioles had selected Machado out of Florida’s Brito Miami Private School with the third pick in the 2010 draft, behind only Harper to Washington and a pitcher named Jameson Taillon to Pittsburgh. Machado was drafted as a shortstop, and that’s where he played in the minors. But in August 2012, when the Orioles were trying to break a 14-year postseason drought, Hardy was in the midst of a Gold Glove-winning season at short. Wilson Betemit, Robert Andino and Ryan Flaherty were playing third base and not terribly well. A month after he turned 20, Machado got the call-up, batted ninth — and played third. “When he was first called up, we obviously called him up here to impact the club defensively,” veteran first baseman Chris Davis said. “We needed a guy that could lock down third base and really give us a boost defensively, and offensively the expectations were kind of unknown. He was young. I think there was still a lot of work to be done on his part.”
The work, though, involved some unexpected turns. Machado had surgery to repair ligaments in his left knee toward the end of the 2013 season, delaying his 2014 debut until May, but then suffered the same injury to his right knee in August 2014, cutting that year short. The Orioles won the AL East. Machado missed the playoffs.
“You’re not able to perform; you’re not able to play baseball,” Machado said. “So you’re always down and frustrated. But you just have to find motivation to get better. That was my motivation. I wanted to be the best again.”
That process began last year, when Showalter started him every single day, and Machado hit 35 homers, posted an .861 OPS and won his second Gold Glove at third base. Asked this past Opening Day what he would like to see from Machado this summer, Showalter said, “I’d take last year.” He’s getting more than that.
“One of the greatest compliments I can pay a guy is when I say he’ll be as good as he’s capable of being,” Showalter said. “Manny wants to be as good as he’s capable of being. And he’s appreciative of the talents that have been bestowed upon him.