How to Parse Fake News

The Manny Machado rumors continue to swirl, but the air is beginning to leak out of them faster than those Thanksgiving Day parade balloons shot up in Broadway Danny Rose/

Take a look at this interesting and worthwhile job of debunking by Mike Rosenstein at something called NJ Advance Media:

https://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2018/07/mlb_trade_rumors_orioles_machado_yankees_sheffield.html

According to Mr. Rosenstein, who appears to be a real journalist, as opposed to the idle, lotus-eating speculators most of the sporting press has turned into, one Jon Morosi of MLB first reported this story as saying that the trade hinged on the Yanks including Justus Sheffield.

But Rosenstein quotes Jim Bowden, the former GM and CBS analyst, as saying:

"Well, the one thing we know is they will not put Sheffield in the deal."  Bowden then speculates about other possible guys from the Yanks' system, and hedges:

"The one thing about the New York Yankees that we all have to keep in mind ... if they want Manny Machado, they are better equipped in their farm system to get it done than anybody else. The other thing to keep in mind with their GM, Brian Cashman, if he really wants it done, he always swoops in late, he goes hard, he goes strong and he tries to close the deal. That's usually his formula."

 In other words, we've suddenly moved from actual doing, to what Cashman "usually" does and what the Yankees could do.

Rosenstein then goes on to duly list the other rumors—noting they were first published in the Baltimore Sun:

Both the Red Sox and Yankees have an interest in Machado playing third base, where he won two Gold Glove awards. Boston has Xander Boegarts at short and 21-year-old Rafael Devers at third. New York has Didi Gregorius at short, but might be willing to move rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar, either to first base or in a deal for a starting pitcher.

So both teams might have an interest in plugging Machado into a position...that he has expressly said, over and over, that he no longer wants to play, and insisted on moving from this past year.

My friends, this is not going to happen—at least not like this.

The Sox have very little if anything to trade for Manny, including the dinged-up Devers, now out of the lineup, and anyway they are hotter than the proverbial smoking gun.  The Yanks aren't going to deal pitching when it's pitching they need.

And both teams know they can reassess the whole situation in the free-agent market.

What's much more likely is what Bowden also reports, which is that two NL teams supposedly have serious offers on the table for Manny.  Expect the Orioles to take one of them, after all their rumor-mongering has failed to produce a Yankees/Red Sox counter-offer.

Of course, none of this will keep Coops from making a really stupid deal for a pitcher...