Major League Baseball: Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers won the Manny Machado sweepstakes, getting the prized All-Star shortstop from the Baltimore Orioles in a trade Wednesday night.
The Orioles received five prospects: outfielder Yusniel Diaz, right-handers Dean Kremer and Zach Pop, and third basemen Rylan Bannon and Breyvic Valera.
Machado, a 26-year-old power hitter with extraordinary fielding skills, greatly improves the Dodgers chances of reaching the World Series for a second consecutive year. He led Baltimore in batting average (.315), home runs (24) and RBIs (65).
Machado is expected to be introduced in Milwaukee on Friday before the Dodgers open a series against the Brewers.
We viewed Manny Machado as a big difference maker, Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi said.
The Dodgers are in a close race in the NL West, leading Arizona by a half-game going into the second half.
Our first hope is we have a division-winning roster, Zaidi said. Any time you have a chance to add an impact player in a tight division race thats something you have to look at closely.
Machados contract expires at the end of the season, and the last-place Orioles decided against negotiating an expensive, multi-year extension because they have too many holes as the team moves into a rebuilding mode.
We tried to maintain a competitive club this year, and thats why we resisted the offers we had in the offseason to trade Manny, Dan Duquette, the Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations, said. But when it became obvious that it was time to look to the future, trading Manny is the first step in the plan to rebuild our ballclub.
Asked if the Dodgers would re-sign Machado, Zaidi demurred.
Lets have him at least show up in a Dodger uniform before we start asking those questions, he said. We hope he plays well and creates a good market for himself. Were not worried about what happens past 2018.
Though only a summer rental, Machado was coveted by a variety of contenders, including Philadelphia, Milwaukee, the Chicago Cubs and Arizona.
We liked the depth of the Dodger package, we liked the quality of the players in the package and we liked Yusniel Diaz, a player we feel is a gifted hitter, Duquette said. We felt he was clearly the best player offered to us during this recent market. He was the key to the trade. But the other players in the trade are also very talented.
The 21-year-old Diaz hit two home runs in the All-Star Futures Game last weekend. Hes hitting .314 with a .905 OPS with six homers, 30 RBIs and 36 runs scored this season.
Duquette said Valera will be optioned to Triple-A Norfolk, and the other four players will be sent to Double-A Bowie.
Los Angeles gets a four-time AL All-Star with two Gold Gloves who has 129 homers over the last 3½ seasons. Machado was drafted third overall by the Orioles in 2010, made his big league debut in 2012 and spent his entire major league career in Baltimore.
