Despite all the signs pointing towards Manny Machado being officially traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers within hours of Tuesday’s All-Star Game, the deal has hit an apparent snag.
According to former GM and current MLB Network personality Steve Phillips, there are some issues regarding the physicals of at least one of the prospects that the Baltimore Orioles would be getting.
Possible snag in Machado deal to Dodgers. Sources indicate that one or more of prospects coming to #Orioles have some issues in their physicals. Surprise surprise. May open door for other clubs. Stay tuned.
— Steve Phillips (@StevePhillipsGM) July 18, 2018
With any other organization, this would likely be treated as either hearsay, or a completely rare event. But given Baltimore’s recent history of having trades and signings held up for identical reasons, it’s simply par for the course.
And that’s not to suggest that the Orioles should be accepting injured players coming back. What’s baffling, though, is how this seems to repeatedly come up with them. This is the kind of research that should be done for a long time with players that you’re scouting.
In the case of Machado, we’ve known for weeks that he was likely going to be traded and that only a handful of contending teams had the prospects Baltimore would want in return. In reality, that leaves roughly two dozen prospects to that the Orioles should have been doing their homework on. So, how is this just coming up now?
In all likelihood, this won’t keep Machado from going to Los Angeles. But if you’re a Dodgers fan, you might want to wait until his first at-bat to go buy his jersey. If you’re an Orioles fan, a massive front office overhaul can’t come fast enough.