REPORT: Domincan Reporter Hector Gomez Says Manny Machado Will Sign With White Sox
Okay everyone is sick and fucking tired of the whole “where will Machado sign?” saga. I’m sick of writing about it, you’re sick of reading about it and media is sick of talking about it. Everyone knows that MLB could be in some trouble a couple years down the road, but we are still forced to focus on the now.
And now Hector Gomez, a Dominican reporter who’s been nothing but credible in the past, is doubling down on his info that Machado signing with the White Sox is imminent. Now does that mean he or anyone else knows of a time frame? No, it doesn’t. But let’s talk about what we do know and what we can assume:
Let’s Break it Down:
– The White Sox have the only official offer on the table for Machado. All reports say it’s for 7 years with “swellopt” options. It’s a new age term, and one Boras coined. This creates a win-win for both the player and the team. Play well? Team opts in and more years/dollars are added to the end of the deal. Play shitty? Team opts out and player still have the choice to continue with the current contract or opt out in search of a new deal.
– Machado hasn’t accepted the offer (duh)
– Machado is waiting for something more: more years, more dollars, higher AAV, whatever… there’s at least one thing that both Lozano and Machado want that the White Sox won’t give them. This is where White Sox fans are saying “JUST GIVE THEM WHAT HE WANTS AND GET IT OVER WITH!” which is an incorrect way of looking at the situation. Say the White Sox have 7/$210 on the table for him with a swellopt that can grow the contract to 8-9 years at a similar AAV. If Machado and his camp are waiting for a better offer from another team and it hasn’t came by February 7th at 10am, will one ever even come? Maybe, but maybe not. The White Sox are hedging that it won’t by refusing to up their offer if they don’t need to. That said, Lozano will keep coming back to the White Sox to get them to up their offer should another offer matriculate.
– Spring training starts 1 week from now when pitchers and catchers report. The whole team reports about 12 days from now. Machado is a seasoned vet, stays in great shape in the offseason, and doesn’t need to be taking batting practice with a bunch of 18 year old kids to prepare for the season. He has an offer, and one that won’t disappear. He is sitting on it in hopes that offer out of the water, and rightfully so. Being in camp “on time” won’t mean shit for him in terms of regular season production. What it will mean is that he could have waited an extra 2-3 weeks and gotten an offer 10s of millions of dollars higher than the one he currently has. He might wait it out until March. The only problem is, those offers just haven’t came and it’s looking more and more like they never will.
Obviously we take what Nightengale says with a grain of salt, but this is a safe assumption at this point
– JD Martinez signed on 2/26 last year. His situation was very similar to the Machado situation. His market never matriculated like both him and Boras assumed it would, even though he dominated the prior season. The Red Sox had an offer on the table for him, about 5/$100, and after nobody beat it, Martinez and his camp finally succumbed to the waiting process and inked with Boston.
So this is where we are at this point. Obviously if SD or whoever comes in and blows Harper out of the water with a massive offer, this could all change and Philly would get back into the fold. But where we stand right now, it’s still looking like Harper to Philly and Machado to the White Sox. We just still could have a few more weeks of waiting, which is fine. If Machado is hitting a walk off bomb in August, we won’t give a FUCK that it took a few extra months to sign him than we originally expected.
BASELESS PREDICTION:
Machado signs with the White Sox on 2/19 for 7 years, $225MM with a “swellopt” that could increase the contract length and value to 9/~$290MM and this is based off of absolutely nothing