It sounds like a Manny Machado trade is imminent, but the Orioles should wait until after tonight’s All-Star Game to do it.
This All-Star break could become known as The One With All the Goodbyes. A day after Bryce Harper wowed fans who might not be able to root for him next season, the Baltimore Orioles are inching closer to a blockbuster deal that would ship out te face of the franchise: Manny Machado.
Everything points towards the Orioles trading Machdo very soon, perhaps before the All-Star Game gets underway. That would be a mistake, and should be avoided at all costs.
If the Baltimore indeed has such solid structure in place to deal Machado to an “unknown team” that medicals are being performed, there’s no need to rush anything. What should happen instead is Orioles fans getting to see their favored son in uniform one last time before he’s gone forever.
Back in 2014, Chicago Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija was traded to the Oakland Athletics and the American League. He was an All-Star with the Cubs that year, but because he switched leagues between being named to the team and the game itself, he was ineligble to play. He had to wear a generic ‘All-Star Game’ uniform without any team logos on it. He wore National League garb, the league in which he was voted an All-Star, during practice but sat in the American League dugout, the league he wasn’t voted in.
Regardless of the league switch, he wasn’t able to represent the team he became an All-Star with or the fans who voted him there. It was a shame.
On a much higher level, Manny Machado not being able to rep the Orioles one final time is sinful. The All-Star Game doesn’t matter, but it’s considered to be one of the grandest stages in the sport. We all know Machado is as good as gone, and having his final game as an Oriole be some random midweek game he’s pulled from halfway through is gross.
Give him a sendoff under the bright lights of the All-Star Game. Let the almost-hometown fans who mde the trek from Baltimore to D.C. cheer for him one last time and see him off proper.