2. Houston Astros
Starting pitching is a much bigger need for the Astros at the deadline, and they have already been linked to Jose Quintana, Gerrit Cole, and Sonny Gray. All three of those pitchers, however, come with considerable questions about their performance and durability. Quintana is having the worst season of his career, Cole has been inconsistent, and Gray has struggled to duplicate the form that nearly won him the Cy Young in 2015. The Astros could do more to guarantee a World Series title by adding an elite hitter.
Rather than waiting for Alex Bregman to develop into a superstar at third base, the Astros could look to include him in a blockbuster package to get Machado from the Orioles. The first-round pick out of LSU in 2015 has not yet flashed the abilities that should make him a consistent .300 hitter at the MLB level, but it will come. He walked more than he struck out in close to 150 games in the minor leagues. Along with Bregman, the Astros could package elite prospects like Kyle Tucker, Derek Fisher, Francis Martes, David Paulino (teams will not be scared off by his drug suspension) or Daz Cameron.
Trading for Machado now has the obvious benefit of making MLB’s best lineup even better, but it also allows the Astros to start the recruiting push on the All-Star leading up to his free agency. Houston figures to be one of a handful of teams that has the financial resources to offer Machado the $300-400 million contract he is going to seek on the open market. Something tells me that hitting in the same lineup as George Springer, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel might be fairly attractive to Manny Machado.