So if this doesn’t add fuel to the fire… According to Robert Murray of FanRag sports, Baltimore Orioles star slugger, Manny Machado would only consider a contract extension with the Chicago Cubs.
Would Manny Machado consider re-signing with anyone before free agency should he be traded? There may be one…#Orioles #Cubs pic.twitter.com/hfQ0q7uV8s
— FRS Baseball (@FRS_Baseball) June 18, 2018
So I’m certain there are many fans that would love this, and that are sucked into this idea. Thing is, I don’t believe it for one second. It seems that they (my stay Jon Heyman) play loose with rumors and it appears, at least to some, that they pay favors and leak potentially not-entirely-true information that could benefit certain agent’s clients. Whether they do this for future information, or whatever else, there have been far too many occurrences in the past that haven’t come to fruition.
This also doesn’t make a ton of sense since Machado would cost himself millions of dollars to sign an extension before hitting free agency, and possibly more by saying publicly that he would consider an extension with a particular team.
Why would someone on the cusp of potentially earning north of $300 million, cost himself a chunk of that money?
I have a decent BS meter when it comes to baseball rumors, I might write about a lot of them, but I’m often upfront on my personal feelings on a rumor. This one just doesn’t seem to have much legs at all.
What I think this is, the Cubs have played much better than they were a month ago. By playing much better, the Cubs have likely played themselves out of a big time player at the deadline and closer to small additions in trade. With Machado’s camp sensing this, and the threat of the Cubs being involved helps their case, they “leaked” this sort of rumor to entice others.
Or maybe it’s true and I’m completely wrong.
*I did provide an error in the original post, Manny Machado is not repped by Scott Boras, he is in fact repped by Dan Lozano of MVP Sports Group
