Machado snaps at reporters when asked about growing trade rumors
For Manny Machado, the only thing worse than being by far the best player on a bad team is fielding questions about getting traded to a good one.
The Orioles’ All-Star, about whom rumors have been swirling as the trade deadline approaches at the end of July, got chippy with reporters after Monday’s doubleheader with the New York Yankees.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic asked Machado about the trade rumors that, if true, would put him in the opposite dugout in future encounters between the squads as a member of the Yankees.
Machado shut down that line of talk immediately.
“Talk to me about the game; talk to me about something useful. Not about rumors. … I don’t talk rumors. I play baseball. We got our a– kicked today. Won the first game, lost the second game. I talk baseball. I’ll talk baseball all you want. … I’m a shortstop,” Machado said. “I play shortstop.”
Machado pushed back hard against Baltimore’s efforts to move him from short to third base in spring training, and ultimately got his wish of playing the 6 rather than the 5 position.
He is also a free agent after this season; any trade that involves him going to a team that wants to move him to third base will also create the problem of that team, even the mighty Yankees, having a harder time signing him this offseason.
For most teams battling in a pennant race, making a win-now move for a two-month rental would be an acceptable risk.
But these are the New York Yankees, and they’re not likely to pull the trigger on Machado if they expect him to replace Miguel Andujar (and his lousy .309 on-base percentage) at third rather than Didi Gregorius, a shortstop who, while he’s no Manny Machado, is still a solid-hitting guy for his position with 15 home runs and a .775 OPS.
All the same, Machado has 21 homers, and his .934 OPS is not only good for seventh in the entire American League this year, but relative to his position, has him on pace for nearly eight offensive wins above replacement; he has 4.0 through 88 games.
Complicating matters is Machado’s defense, which is horrendous; he is dead last among shortstops with a defensive wins above replacement of negative 1.4, while Gregorius is a plus defender at 0.4 dWAR.
Both men end up in a tie when their overall WAR is calculated, hitting the scale at 2.1.
The Dodgers and Brewers reportedly are interested in Machado’s services as well. Both of those teams might be more amenable to a win-now move, as they’re locked in tight division races, with Milwaukee leading the Cubs by 1.5 games and the Dodgers trailing Arizona by just half a game in the NL Central and West, respectively.
Milwaukee has a negative-WAR player at shortstop, Orlando Arcia, at negative 0.2.
The Dodgers have Chris Taylor and his 2.6 WAR at short.
But all of that isn’t of any consequence to Manny Machado when he’s trying to get ready to play the Yankees on Tuesday night.
He just wants to play baseball. At shortstop. Because he’s a shortstop.
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