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The 2018 MLB All-Star Game rosters were unveiled on Sunday night. There is no surprise, with how this season has gone for the Orioles, that Manny Machado is the lone representative from the team. He is the only player who has played well enough to deserve a spot. It’s somewhat remarkable that he managed to win the fan voting to be the American League starter even though the Orioles are 24-65.
Maybe all of the fans of teams who want to see their favorite team trade for or sign Manny Machado were voting for him in addition to demoralized Orioles fans. It’s the trade winds that make things interesting because it seems possible that Machado could be dealt before the All-Star Game, most likely to a National League team.
The Baltimore Sun’s Eduardo Encina noted on Sunday that one league’s starter being traded to the other league after rosters are announced but before the game is played would be a situation without precedent. In that scenario, unless MLB intervenes in some way, the Orioles could have no actual representative by the time the game rolls around at all.
Machado was selected to the All-Star roster for the fourth time in his career and is returning to the game after missing out last season. It is his first selection as a shortstop. Machado will be the second Oriole to accomplish the feat of being an All-Star at both third base and shortstop, with Cal Ripken having done so as well. Machado did it in the opposite order. He edged Houston’s Carlos Correa in the voting to be the starter.
The O’s appear to be getting serious about possibly trying to trade Machado over the course of the next week. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported last week about talks accelerating, with Jon Heyman adding on Friday about the chance of a deal next week.
An Orioles-connected person appears to be filling in the local reporters as well. Encina and MASN’s Roch Kubatko reported on the Machado trade talks after Saturday’s game against the Twins with nearly verbatim descriptions of the current situation. Kubatko’s report on where things stood about 24 hours ago:
The Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Brewers, Phillies, Braves and Cubs are, in that order, the most aggressive teams in talks, according to the source. And there isn’t much of a gap. ... Several other clubs have checked in and the Indians made an offer, but other suitors are “more active,” per the source.
In Rosenthal fashion, he narrowed that list down further on Sunday while bringing up his usual Angelos-related bugaboo:
#Dodgers, #Brewers most serious for #Orioles’ Machado, sources tell The Athletic. #Indians also in mix, though taking on rest of Machado’s $16M might be obstacle. Question remains: Will O’s ownership view offers practically or slow down process by asking for other players?
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 8, 2018
I have no information to offer you about who is calling and what they’re offering and whether the specter of any Angelos involvement could really screw this whole business up.
I’ve done this long enough to know that sometimes there are surprises. If there is a surprise in this process, hopefully it’s the kind of surprise that would make O’s fans happy about it. Mostly, I want to know what you think about this key question: