The White Sox are reportedly the ‘most aggressive’ suitor for Manny Machado, and that’s weird

Aside from the Miami Marlins continuing their circus, the 2018 MLB Winter Meetings have been pretty slow. But there have been rumors of a potential trade involving Baltimore Orioles superstar Manny Machado, who’s set to be a free agent in next offseason’s absurd class that also includes Bryce Harper.

And late on Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning on the east coast), The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported that the Chicago White Sox are “the most aggressive suitor” for Machado.

A surprising team emerges as the most aggressive suitor for Machado. The latest: https://t.co/8emZ0hh1yH $

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 14, 2017

In a surprising turn of events, the rebuilding Chicago White Sox emerged Wednesday as the most aggressive suitor for Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, according to major-league sources.

The USA Today’s Bob Nightengale adds that the White Sox have made “the best offer of the dozen offers the Orioles have received.”

The #Whitesox not only have made a strong bid for #Orioles 3B Manny Machado, but actually have made the best offer of the dozen offers the Orioles have received

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 14, 2017

While the White Sox have been loosely thrown around as a possibility for Machado, nobody has really taken the idea seriously, because the White Sox are going to be awful in 2018.

FanGraphs currently projects the White Sox to win 63 games, eight worse than any other team in the majors. Even if you add the 6-WAR Machado is projected for, Chicago is still the worst team on paper. This White Sox team is in the middle of a full-on rebuild, and Machado is only signed for more one season. And he’s likely to cost premium prospects to acquire. The White Sox would be giving up multiple prospects that they’ve worked so hard to stockpile over the last couple of seasons, all to get control of one player, for one season, on a horrible team.

So, why the heck would the White Sox do this? Rosenthal’s sources tell him that the White Sox would want to sign Machado to a long term deal before he hits free agency.

The White Sox want to land Machado and and sign him long-term before he becomes a free agent at the end of the season, sources said.

Now, that idea makes some sense, but would Machado really want to agree to a long term deal right now? Like Harper, Machado is expected to land a mega contract north of $300 million next offseason, so is he really going to commit to one team right now instead of letting several teams have a bidding war for his services in 12 months? And are the White Sox really ready to offer him a contract that big right now? Maybe the answer to these questions is yes, but that would seem surprising on the surface.

But there’s another interesting possibility Rosenthal suggests, and it’s a terrifying one for the rest of baseball: the White Sox could acquire Machado, and flip him to the Yankees for prospects.

However, the possibility also exists that the White Sox could flip Machado to another club — most likely the New York Yankees — and secure additional prospects for what already is one of the game’s best farm systems, if not the best.

The Yankees are known to covet Machado, even after acquiring Giancarlo Stanton (and even after already having Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez). But it’s unlikely the Orioles would make that trade directly to their division rival. So this one makes plenty of sense: the Yankees continue building their juggernaut,  and the White Sox continue adding on to their terrific farm system.

Rosenthal says that the Orioles would like “two young, controllable starting pitchers” in the trade, and the White Sox are willing to include one of Lucas Giolito or Michael Kopech, but not both of the highly regarded pitching prospects.

The San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox, and St. Louis Cardinals are also reportedly interested in Machado, which certainly would be less surprising than a White Sox trade.

[The Athletic]