We've all had things we've wanted our whole lives only to choose something different when the time came.
This writer believed he was going to the University of Illinois for the first 16-plus years of his life before choosing the University of Missouri. But you don't care about that, you care about Manny Machado and whether the White Sox are going to sign him.
I bring up that personal anecdote only to illustrate the decision facing Machado at the conclusion of his free-agent tour. His choices for where to play 81 of his home games over much of the next decade seem to be down to three teams: the White Sox, the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies. And while we don't know what he heard from the teams' brain trusts over the last week, it's possible the meetings started with this thought in Machado's head: "What am I going to hear that's going to make me change my mind about playing for the Yankees?"
You see, according to a lot of talk and reports over the last few months, Machado has long desired to play for the Yankees. The Athletic's Jim Bowden was one of the latest to bring up that point, writing Friday that "Machado has told friends in Miami that his preference is the Yankees, and if the offers are close, he’ll be headed to the Bronx."
Machado has seemed to make almost too much sense for the Bronx Bombers since the early stages of the offseason. They'll be without shortstop Didi Gregorius for the first half of the 2019 campaign as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, opening a hole at Machado's preferred position. The Yankees also have far and away the best major league roster to sell to the mega free agent, offering the opportunity to play alongside young stars like Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Miguel Andujar, Gleyber Torres and Gary Sanchez not just in 2019 but for years. It could be a new Yankee dynasty — with or without Machado.
But whether or not the Yankees were the front runner in Machado's head when the offseason, the month or the week started, things can change. And so often in free agency, money talks.
According to the New York Post's Joel Sherman, the Yankees — who historically have had no qualms about handing out monstrous contracts — might not be willing to give Machado the kind of 10-year or $300 million offer he has been thought to potentially receive. Sherman says the Yankees could be outbid by not just the Phillies, whose owner promised to spend "stupid" this winter, but the White Sox, too.
MLB
One way to change any long-held desire Machado might have to play for the Yankees would be for two other suitors to offer more years and more dollars.
The Yankees also have a couple other things going that might play into Machado's decision, or their's. The aforementioned Andujar is really good, the second-place finisher in this year's AL Rookie of the Year voting. So even if Machado agrees to move over to third base (where he's won a pair of Gold Gloves) when Gregorius returns, what does that mean for Andujar? The logic is that he would move to first base, but maybe the Yankees don't want to deal with all that shuffling when they're in line to perhaps be the preseason World Series favorite even without Machado. They did win 100 games last season.
The White Sox have similar shuffling that would have to take place if Machado came to the South Side. Shortstop is one of the few spots on the major league team the White Sox have a long-term piece, and if they got Machado — and he maintained his insistence on being a shortstop — what would happen with Tim Anderson? Heck, the Phillies traded for shortstop Jean Segura earlier this offseason, so it's not like there are no similar questions in Philly.
Plus, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner is one of the only people involved in this sweepstakes who has had something public to say about Machado's infamous "Johnny Hustle" comments, telling reporters that "ain't going to sell where we play baseball." Of course, White Sox manager Rick Renteria wasn't shy about sticking to his policy of benching players who don't hustle when he talked to the media during the Winter Meetings.
So there's a lot going on here. Machado might have wanted to be a Yankee for a long time. He might still want to, and perhaps that made this week's trips to Chicago and Philadelphia mere formalities. But a lot of things (and a lot of dollars) can contribute to a change of heart. Stay tuned.
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