Major League Baseball teams reportedly need to step up their games if they want to land Manny Machado.
The Baltimore Orioles superstar third baseman is the current darling of the MLB hot stove, as the O’s reportedly have been fielding offers for their best player. But those offers evidently have been underwhelming thus far, so much so that the Orioles are threatening to pull Machado off the trade block in a “couple days,” FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reported Wednesday, citing sources.
“Baltimore has been seeking young, controllable talent in return for Machado … but the Orioles will ‘move on to other things’ if nobody steps up with what they see as a fair deal perhaps as soon as ‘today or tomorrow,’ ” Heyman wrote.
“The Orioles are telling people they’d be interested in a deal along the lines of what the Braves got several years ago for young star Jason Heyward as a ‘five-year’ young star (meaning one year to go before free agency). Atlanta received top young pitcher Shelby Miller in that trade for Heyward before sending Miller to Arizona a year later in an even more-remembered trade for Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte.”
The Miami Marlins’ trade of Giancarlo Stanton to the New York Yankees proved that you don’t always need to part with a king’s ransom to acquire one of MLB’s best players. But if the Orioles do end up trading Machado, they probably will net a massive return — unless they want a mutinous fan base on their hands.
The Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks are among the teams who have made offers for Machado, according to Heyman.
