The Baltimore Orioles haven’t liked the offers they’ve received so far for third baseman Manny Machado and may consider pulling him off the trade block, according to Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports.
Baltimore has been seeking young, controllable players in a deal for Machado, who will be a free agent following next season. According to Heyman, the club is telling potential trade partners that they are interested in a deal similar to what the Braves received from the Cardinals for outfielder Jason Heyward when he was one season away from free agency.
In the November 2014 deal, the Cardinals sent Tyrell Jenkins and Shelby Miller, who was highly regarded at the time, to Atlanta for Heyward and reliever Jordan Walden.
The Orioles are ready to “move on to other things,” perhaps within the next few days, if other teams don’t produce stronger offers.
The Cubs, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Phillies, White Sox, Yankees and Giants have been linked to Machado, who could receive a contract in the neighbourhood of $300 million next off-season.
San Francisco acquired Rays slugger Evan Longoria on Wednesday morning, taking another impact third baseman off the market. It remains to be seen whether that trade will spur other teams to rev up their pursuit of Machado.
Darvish dinner
Free agent right-hander Yu Darvish reportedly met with the Cubs and Astros this earlier this week and will now do the same with his former club, the Rangers, on Wednesday night.
The Rangers’ “meeting” is interesting in that general manager Jon Daniels is simply having dinner with Darvish, who spent his entire MLB career with Texas before being traded to the Dodgers in July. No agent or other team executives will be present and there are no plans to formally talk business.
As Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes, it’s “just a couple guys hanging out at a ritzy restaurant for yuks and to catch up on old times.”
The dinner had apparently been scheduled for November but was pushed back as Daniels was busy in his pursuit of Shohei Ohtani.
The Rangers have said this off-season that they don’t plan on pursuing players at the top end of the free agent market.
Cooling on Cole
The Yankees have reportedly been on the hunt for rotation help and were linked to Pirates right-hander Gerrit Cole in recent weeks, but those talks appear to have simmered down, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Cole is a particularly attractive trade option because he’s under control for two more seasons. The 27-year-old had a 4.26 ERA and 8.7 K/9 rate across 203 innings in 2017.
New York’s current rotation options include Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, Jordan Montgomery and the recently re-signed CC Sabathia.
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