In radio interview, Manny Machado's father claims son has multiple offers

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The Machado free agency is expected to be resolved soon

Things are eerily quiet down at Citizens Bank Park here in the middle of January. But that just might actually be a sign that the Phillies are preparing to light up the ‘Hot Stove’ as the Philadelphia region prepares to enter the coldest stretch of winter.

One thing that can be said for the current regime under owner John Middleton, president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail, and general manager Matt Klentak is that they play it fairly close to the vest. You don’t get much, if anything, leaking out of the Phillies offices until the club is ready to announce something formal.

Manuel Machado, father of big free agent prize infielder Manny Machado, tossed a log on the hot stove during an appearance on Z Digital radio earlier today. The senior Machado stated that the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Dodgers had all made formal offers for the services of his son.

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Héctor Gómez@hgomez27

Manuel Machado, Manny’s Father:

“Manny has received offers from different teams: Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, now there’s a lot of interest from the White Sox.”#ZDigital #ZDeportes @z101digital @ZDeportes

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Per Jose Luis Montilla at Z Digital, the senior Machado further stated that there is a team “which nobody is thinking at the moment” also involved in discussions for his son.

Earlier this week, Richard Justice at MLB.com speculated that the San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Saint Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, or Texas Rangers could emerge as such a “mystery team” in the sweepstakes for Machado or Bryce Harper.

Phillies may fall short in the Manny Machado Derby

Manny Machado (picture: Yahoo Sports)

While Rhys Hoskins was getting passed by Kyle Schwarber in the semi-finals of the Home Run Derby last night, it appears that the Los Angeles Dodgers may have also passed the Phillies in the Manny Machado Derby.

MLB insider Jon Heyman of Fancred Sports was first out with the story on Twitter this morning:

Breaking; The Dodgers appear to be the leading contender for superstar Manny Machado as talks head toward the finish line. The situation is fluid and brewers and phillies may still have an outside chance. Barring turnabout, deal should be done this week. Story comin on @Fancred
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 17, 2018

Just yesterday it was the Phillies who were considered the leader to land the services of the superstar Baltimore Orioles shortstop. They were willing to include the organizational number two prospect in pitcher Adonis Medina in a deal. That seemed to be a potential deal clincher.

However, Heyman believes that Los Angeles GM Farhan Zaidi may be willing to include their own fourth-rankedorganizational prospect, outfielder Yusniel Diaz, which may have tipped the scales in the Dodgers favor.

It’s difficult to believe that Diaz, a former Cuban defector as a teenager, would make that much of a difference. He is an intriguing prospect. However, scouting reports on his ultimate ceiling have always been mixed. However, perhaps the Orioles see something they really like in the 21-year old outfielder.

The Dodgers lost their own young superstar shortstop, Corey Seager, to injury for the season before it even got underway. He will be back next year, and Machado has stated that he wishes to play shortstop. Heyman addressed this in a full piece later in the morning:

“If he moves to Los Angeles, Machado will effectively be filling in for injured shortstop Corey Seager, the 24-year-old budding star who was lost for the season. That makes it highly likely that he would be a rental for the remainder of the season and then sign with a different organization in the offseason, though that would be re-evaluated after the season.”

Another respected MLB insider, Buster Olney, put out more information on Tuesday morning:

Sources: The Orioles have structure of a deal in place, and are going through the medicals/paperwork portion of the transaction. Dodgers have been very invested in their pursuit of Machado, as have the Phillies and other teams, but this in not finished yet.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 17, 2018

If it is the Dodgers, that might make it easier for the Phillies to lure him with a long-term contract in the coming off-season. That would allow them to keep their top prospects. But it would also mean that the Phillies don’t land the proven impact run producer for which the present lineup is desperate.

Until a deal is actually completed and announced with some team, the Phillies are still in it. But it may be difficult to see them actually being the winner in this Machado derby without including pitching phenom Sixto Sanchez. His inclusion would appear to be a deal-breaker, as it probably should be at this point.

Phillies Are Indeed Tanking the 2016 MLB Season

The Philadelphia Phillies organization appears content to sacrifice another season of “tanking”, losing in the short-term, in hopes of longer term success.

Some around Major League Baseball have characterized their approach in just that manner, as intentional “tanking”, similar to the approach being utilized for years now, without much success to this point, by the local Philadelphia 76ers franchise in the NBA.

There is a school of thought that, if you are a professional organization in the top competitive league in the business, that you should be doing everything possible to win every year. 

Anything short of that type of organizational commitment is, to those people, considered tanking, or intentionally putting an inferior product on to the field.

In an ESPN Insider blog posting today titled “Yes, Virginia, There is Tanking in Baseball“, Buster Olney built on an idea that he posited in his posting for the same blog on Monday. 

Olney believes that intentional tanking of seasons by multiple MLB teams will be one of the top story lines in the game for the 2016 campaign.

Writers Write

Press box at Comerica Park in Detroit, home of the Tigers

The great Flannery O'Connor was quoted regarding writing: "I'm a full-time believer in writing habits...You may be able to do without them if you have genius, but most of us only have talent and this is simply something that has to be assisted all the time by physical and mental habits or it dries up and blows away."

What she was saying in her oh so elegant way was that we writers need to do: it's not good enough to call yourself a writer, or to say you want to be a writer. Writers write. It's in the doing. O'Connor was emphasizing that you need to do, and do regularly, or your talent will waste away.

I've been thinking about this a lot over the last few years, but in particular over the last few months, as I prepare to transition from one career to the next. Whether I ever draw a paycheck, a royalty check, a residual check, whatever - my next career will be as a writer.

The importance in writing is not whether you make money from your creative output, though I will never undervalue the importance of earning a living. The earning is an entirely separate issue. What is at it's most basic for a writer is that very output.

Writers write.