The Manny Machado watch moves to Chicago on Monday when the Orioles come to town to begin a four-game series with the White Sox.
Cubs fans are licking their chops in anticipation of President Theo Epstein pulling off a blockbuster deal to bring the Orioles star to Wrigley Field, where he’d fit in nicely as protection for Anthony Rizzo.
The addition of Machado, who could be in the midst of a Triple Crown season, would lift the Cubs’ championship hopes considerably and provide a buzz not experienced on the North Side since the signing of, well, Yu Darvish.
Sorry, bad example.
Still, MLB Network insider Jon Heyman said the Cubs will target Machado, which probably is enough evidence for the Cubs marketing department to start working on a Manny Machado bobblehead giveaway for August.
Get to work, Theo. Machado can’t trade himself.
Now that the Cubs have made their interest known, the microscope turns to Theo, who already has traded Gleyber Torres, Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease for a chance to win it all, going 1-for-2 so far in “go-for-it” deals.
Cubs fans seem to be in agreement that Addison Russell is expendable in whatever package the Orioles demand, neglecting to consider why the Orioles would settle for a player ranked 11th among shortstops in WAR (1.1) on Sunday after finishing 21st (1.4) among shortstops with 300 plate appearances in 2017.
If you were Orioles general manager Dan Duqette, looking for long-term value for a player having an MVP season, wouldn’t you start at Willson Contreras? After Epstein hangs up, you can always call back and lower your demand, asking for Javier Baez before getting to Russell.
Machado may be only a half-year rental, but no rental has ever had a start like Machado is having, and Duquette will look foolish if he doesn’t get an insanely good package in return.
Duquette, whom Epstein replaced as GM in Boston, is in the last year of his contract and is facing a 100-loss season. The Orioles may be even worse than the White Sox, who at least are losing with young players.
Duquette isn’t beloved in Baltimore. He was widely criticized for re-signing Chris Davis to a seven-year, $161 million deal in 2016. He gave starter Alex Cobb a four-year, $57 million deal in March. And we can’t forget he handed Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop to the Cubs for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger, the O’s version of Brock-for-Broglio.
Duquette recently told MLB Network radio they haven’t made a determination yet on whether to trade players, adding: “The other consideration is: What if Manny Machado is having an MVP season and he’s on his way to the Triple Crown? Is that a player that a club wants to trade? Even though their season may not be a championship season this year?
“So there’s a lot of different questions for the organization to answer, but it’s really about timing. How many good players can you have together at the same time? And can you keep them together for a period of time to give yourself a chance to go again for the playoffs?”
Sure.
Of course he has to trade Machado, who is going to leave as a free agent after the season. The only questions are when, and to whom?
Tall tale
Lanky lefty Josh Hader led the Brewers with 56 strikeouts entering Sunday’s game and ranked 27th in the majors. That’s not so unusual, except Hader is a reliever and has pitched only 27 1/3 innings.
He’s ahead of nine-figure starters including Felix Hernandez (49 strikeouts), Masahiro Tanaka (47), David Price (46) and Jon Lester (44). Hader is averaging 18.44 strikeouts per nine innings, an amazing stat considering the record for a nine-inning game is 20 strikeouts.
Hader has more than made up for the month-plus loss of closer Corey Knebel, considering the Brewers are 16-0 when he gets into a game.
“He gives us as an offense that feeling that if the game’s tied late, with our bullpen and the guys that we run out there every night, that we’ve just got to find a way to push one across,” outfielder Christian Yelich told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “And if we do, we like our chances.”
Think before speaking
Astros analyst Preston Wilson apologized for the dumbest quote of the week. During an on-air discussion during Saturday’s Astros-Indians game on difficult-to-hit pitches, Wilson joked the slider should be banned.
“I can handle the fastball,” he said. “I actually had somebody ask me if I could go back in history and change one thing, I skipped right over slavery and went to the slider. That’s how I feel about it. … I realized that was selfish, so then after I thought about it, I was like, you know what, maybe I should change what I said, but that’s how hard it is to hit a slider in the big leagues.”
Wilson later tweeted the comment was “inappropriate” and “may have offended people” and said it didn’t reflect the team or the station.