Baltimore Orioles Have Discussed Manny Machado Trade With Diamondbacks
By Ben Palmer
The Baltimore Orioles have reportedly discussed a potential trade of shortstop Manny Machado to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Baltimore Orioles have reportedly discussed a potential trade of shortstop Manny Machado to the Arizona Diamondbacks, according to MLB Network’s Jon Morosi on Twitter.
According to Morosi, “dialogue remains open between” the Orioles and Diamondbacks, who spoke during the offseason about a potential Machado trade as well
At this point, it’s essentially a foregone conclusion that the Baltimore Orioles will be trading Machado this season. He’s in the final year of his contract, is putting up huge numbers, and the Orioles are arguably the worst team in all of Major League Baseball.
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The hope is that the Orioles can trade Machado to a shortstop-needy team and in return get a haul of prospects in an effort to begin rebuilding the organization for the future.
The Diamondbacks are one of those teams—they’re currently first place in their division and have been playing Nick Ahmed (most of the time) at shortstop, who’s slashing just .227/.289/.431 on the season.
Machado, on the other hand, is having an excellent season—slashing .310/.377/.567 on the year, though his defense since switching to shortstop hasn’t been nearly as good as he was at third base, with a -15 defensive runs saved on the year so far.
We previously outlined five potential teams we thought the Baltimore Orioles might trade Machado to, and though the Diamondbacks aren’t one of them, a trade with Arizona could potentially be good for the Orioles.
For one, the Diamondbacks have some solid pitching prospects—specifically Jon Duplantier, the top prospect in their season and a pitcher with the potential of a top starter. Currently, Duplantier has a 2.52 ERA with a 10.35 K/9 in seven starts in Double-A.
Other pitching prospects like Taylor Widener and Taylor Clarke are interesting, though not nearly enough to acquire a player the level of Machado. It’s also conceivable (however unlikely) that a Machado trade could involve a player already in the major leagues, such as 28-year-old starting pitcher Zack Godley.
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There’s certainly going to be a large market for Manny Machado, and whether he ends up with the Diamondbacks or another team, hopefully the Orioles are able to get a decent haul or prospects to start rebuilding the team.