The Manny Machado sweepstakes is certainly going to garner all the headlines as we approach the July 31 trade deadline with multiple contenders vying for his services.
Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports that the Baltimore Orioles want young, controllable pitching in return when they decide to trade their star shortstop. Makes sense given their current team ERA of 4.82 and recent history of free agent starting pitcher signings.
The two teams atop of the National League East standings, Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, are both teams with young controllable pitching that have shown varying levels of interest in Machado. The surprising Braves currently hold a 1.5 game lead for the NL East over the Phillies with the Washington Nationals seven games back.
The Phillies top prospects are young right-handers Sixto Sanchez and Adonis Medina, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively by MLB Pipeline.
While the Braves have a ton of young talented highly ranked arms that includes righties Kyle Wright (No. 2 prospect) and Ian Anderson (No. 4 prospect) along with lefties Max Fried (No. 7) and Kolby Allard (No. 5).
Morosi reports that the Braves are unlikely to include both Anderson and Fried in a trade for Machado.
Machado, 26 on Friday, is hitting .308/.377/.560 with 17 doubles, 21 homers and 59 RBI this season in 84 games for the Orioles. Though he’s been underwhelming defensively at shortstop with -19 defensive runs saved. The three-time Gold Glover at third base, insisted on making the switch to shortstop this season despite only 52 starts there in six major league seasons.
Trade talks have accelerated in recent days according to Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Dodgers as other teams that have shown interest in acquiring the pending free agent.
