It’s time to grade the Manny Machado trade and find out who won

Manny Machado has finally been traded, but what are the grades for everyone now that the dust is settling?

Finally, after months of speculation, the Baltimore Orioles have traded Manny Machado. It’s almost fitting that Machado was traded the same day another face of a franchise in another league was dealt in a coast-to-coast deal. While the Toronto Raptors dealing for Kawhi Leonard is controversial at best, there’s less to be mad about in the Machado trade aside from the obvious.

That obviousness is watching a small market team get gutted of its franchise star while a large market coastal elite adds to its embarrassment of riches.

Machado heads to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 5-for-1 deal that includes one Major Leaguer. Baltimore is receiving all prospects in return for their superstar, but it’s hard to hate on either side now that we have some clarity on what’s happening.

Here is what the trade looked like on Wednesday night:

Los Angeles Dodgers

Getting Machado is a clear move to get back to the World Series. For the last two years, the Dodgers have come close to winning it all but have fallen short. In 2016 it was losing to the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS and last year it was a World Series loss to the Houston Astros.

Already the Dodgers had a roster that few will want to match up against in October, and now they just added the best infielder in baseball. Machado joins an infield that already includes Justin Turner, Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger. Defensively it could be the best in baseball and the batting order for Dave Roberts is stacked.

This is all knee-jerk reaction, I haven’t even had time to dig into what the actual analytics say. It doesn’t take a mathematician to know that it’s likely astounding.

What hurts this from being a total grand slam is the uncertainty about Machado’s future. He’s a free agent at the end of the season, and while Los Angeles was already a rumored destination, there’s no guarantee he’ll re-sign. The price paid in this deal was not just for the half-season rental of Machado but to buy time in convincing him he should sign for Los Angeles in the winter.

We’ve already mused the idea of  him playing there, now he gets a couple of months to test drive things before making his decision. He might even win a World Series in the process — not a bad deal for anyone.

Grade: A-

Baltimore Orioles

A gut reaction to trading Manny Machado for anything short of his clone would be to give a failing grade. Baltimore just traded away a perennial All-Star and lopped off the face of its franchise. They’re essentially Nic Cage for the fifteen minutes in Face/Off before he puts on John Travolta’s face — it’s gross and we don’t know what we’re going to get.

But the return for Machado is easy to love. Yusinel Diaz is a top outfield prospect and was the No. 4 overall prospect in the Dodgers farm system. Baltimore also gets back two more Top 30 prospects, but none of it will seem worth it until we see some results.

Right now all we have are the optics, which are the Orioles trading away their superstar in the present to invest in a potential future. Nothing is certain about Machado re-signing in L.A., just like how there’s no guarantee any of these prospects pan out for Baltimore. Diaz has the potential to be the new face of the franchise, but fans will look at his status as No. 4 overall prospect and wonder why they couldn’t get the Dodgers No. 1 guy.

Only time will tell if this deal is more of a Yankees trading Aroldis Chapman for Gleyber Torres or a Twins trading Johan Santana for Carlos Gomez.

Grade: B-