Hold on to your hats, folks. Trade deadline season is about to get weird. According to Ken Rosenthal, the Yankees are “showing increased interest” in Manny Machado, the gem of this summer’s trade candidates.
For the last few days, teams like the Dodgers and Brewers emerged as the favorites in the Machado sweepstakes. Now it sounds like the Yankees are very much in the mix, and that completely changes the equation. Brian Cashman has an incredibly deep farm system at his disposal, and it’s likely to contain the pieces needed to get a trade done.
Conventional wisdom suggests that the Orioles would never trade their superstar to the Yankees, but Rosenthal downplays that concern to a degree.
“The Orioles’ preference probably is to send Machado to the NL, and the team likely would ask the Yankees for a steeper package than they would accept from other clubs. Still, the Orioles might be more open to a blockbuster with the Yankees than they were when owner Peter Angelos was more active in the operation of the club.”
Machado, 26, hit .313./382/.560 with 21 home runs heading into today’s doubleheader. That line will almost assuredly go up, as the Orioles shortstop is having having quite the couple of games. He’s an elite bat, and would make the Yankees’ lineup the equivalent of a video game. When one considers that, it makes sense why the Bombers would pivot their attention to another bat.
I’m sure the Yankees would prefer to go after a starting pitcher — I know I would — but Marc Carig has an interesting thought on the matter.
For all the talk about acquiring a pitcher, the Yankees at this moment don’t have options that are better than Sonny Gray last summer. So, perhaps some creativity is in order. Improve bullpen and then do something wild like this: https://t.co/HifW94yi1Y
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) July 10, 2018
We’ll have more on this as the story develops. For now, let’s take a collective deep breath. Slow news day, right?