Yankees, just say no to Manny Machado!

Manny Machado is a free agent and the Yankees are making noises that suggest that they may try to sign Machado.

Hal Steinbrenner: Machado will have to explain ‘troubling’ comments
By Ken Davidoff November 14, 2018 2:25pm

At the Major League Baseball owners’ meetings on Wednesday, Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner acknowledged that Machado’s comments to The Athletic about his approach to the game were “troubling” and would have to be reconciled if the Yankees are to sign him.

“If it’s a $300 million guy or a $10 million guy, clearly those comments are troubling,” Steinbrenner told a small group of reporters. “But that’s really [general manager Brian Cashman’s] job. If we’re interested in any player, sit down with him face to face and ask him, ‘Where did this come from? What was the context around the entire interview? Was there a point you were trying to [make]? How do you justify it?

“Because that ain’t gonna sell where we play baseball. That conversation will happen no matter who it is.”
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Following up on that this afternoon at 4:00 on the Micheal Kay ESPN radio show simulcast on the YES Network Yankee general manager Brian Cashman demurred and deflected when asked about Machado's lack of hustle by mentioning former Yankee 2B Robinson Cano and Alfonso Soriano, who had reputations for not hustling but were basically acceptable to both Yankee management and players, implicitly suggesting that Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez were not valued more for hustling all the time. Cashman is such a weasel. At least Cano and Soriano were never accused of being dirty players.

And there's also Machado initiating dirty plays as defined by about to be NL MVP Christian Yelich.

Christian Yelich calls Manny Machado a ‘dirty player’ after Game 4 incident. Machado says he is just playing baseball.
By Jesse Dougherty October 17, 2018 washingtonpost.com
LOS ANGELES — Manny Machado is not making many friends this postseason, and the Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop does not seem to mind...

Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, the front-runner for the National League MVP award, was particularly peeved by the play.

“He is a player that has a history of those types of incidents,” Yelich told reporters. “One time is an accident, Repeated over and over and over again, it’s a dirty play. It’s a dirty play by a dirty player. I have a lot of respect for him as a player, but you can’t respect a guy who plays the game like that."
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What should be troubling to Yankee fans is Hal Steinbrenner mentioning Machado at all for three reasons:
1. It tips off that the Yankees are interested.
2. Machado is overrated and not nearly worth the trouble.
3. The Yankees need Machado like they need a hole in the head; even with shortstop Didi Gregorius out for maybe half the season, the Yankees still have star 2018 rookie infielders 3B Miguel Andujar and 2B (natural SS) Gleyber Torres.

Machado overrated? Machado played 3B until 2018 when he switched to SS. His first two "regular" seasons, PA, OPS+:
2013 710 102
2014 354 110

Then Machado had these home runs and OPS+
2015 35 132
2016 37 130
2017 33 108
2018 37 146

Let's look at the best hitting players 2015-2018 who played at least 75% of their games at either SS or 3B, minimum 2,000 PA:

Rk	Player	OPS+	HR	PA	From	To	Age	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos	Tm
1	Josh Donaldson	147	119	2126	2015	2018	29-32	478	1799	339	506	108	7	323	289	9	417	18	4	16	40	17	3	.281	.383	.548	.931	*5/DH63	TOR-CLE
2	Justin Turner	139	78	2030	2015	2018	30-33	510	1763	268	527	123	5	273	190	10	288	54	2	21	48	18	5	.299	.380	.507	.887	*5/HD346	LAD
3	Kris Bryant	137	107	2471	2015	2018	23-26	559	2100	378	598	132	15	326	295	16	588	59	0	17	23	30	18	.285	.385	.515	.900	*5/7938HD6	CHC
4	Carlos Correa	130	81	2041	2015	2018	20-23	471	1788	270	495	103	6	313	221	15	420	10	0	22	51	32	8	.277	.356	.477	.833	*6/DH	HOU
5	Nolan Arenado	129	158	2714	2015	2018	24-27	632	2430	417	721	159	19	503	237	42	441	13	2	31	71	9	12	.297	.358	.573	.931	*5/HD	COL
6	Manny Machado	129	142	2808	2015	2018	22-25	637	2535	372	720	138	6	384	238	32	450	10	2	23	74	43	17	.284	.345	.511	.856	*56	BAL-LAD
7	Anthony Rendon	122	74	2204	2015	2018	25-28	519	1915	303	551	139	5	302	240	13	351	23	0	26	25	22	11	.288	.369	.481	.851	*5/4H	WSN
8	Francisco Lindor	119	98	2590	2015	2018	21-24	574	2306	377	665	138	13	310	214	16	357	18	24	28	46	71	20	.288	.350	.487	.837	*6/HD	CLE
9	Adrian Beltre	117	82	2129	2015	2018	36-39	509	1923	268	562	108	7	323	162	14	279	19	0	25	48	4	1	.292	.349	.484	.833	*5/DH	TEX
10	Eugenio Suarez	112	94	2263	2015	2018	23-26	555	1998	286	532	91	8	304	216	8	538	29	4	16	53	20	12	.266	.344	.461	.805	*56/HD	CIN
11	Xander Bogaerts	111	61	2588	2015	2018	22-25	597	2349	365	692	146	13	335	201	11	442	21	3	14	61	46	9	.295	.354	.446	.799	*6/H	BOS
12	Kyle Seager	111	105	2642	2015	2018	27-30	628	2381	308	605	142	5	339	219	25	454	26	0	16	51	13	10	.254	.322	.450	.772	*5/HD64	SEA
13	Evan Longoria	108	93	2544	2015	2018	29-32	601	2330	277	613	137	11	311	161	20	486	20	0	33	53	12	6	.263	.312	.451	.763	*5/DH	TBR-SFG
14	Todd Frazier	107	120	2392	2015	2018	29-32	577	2091	299	479	101	2	322	239	7	537	33	2	27	50	41	20	.229	.314	.451	.766	*5/D3H	CIN-CHW-NYY-NYM
15	Jean Segura	104	47	2476	2015	2018	25-28	564	2307	330	682	116	17	222	118	8	346	28	11	11	51	100	35	.296	.336	.422	.758	*64/H	MIL-ARI-SEA
16	Didi Gregorius	103	81	2314	2015	2018	25-28	578	2125	287	582	106	9	299	125	6	306	27	9	27	28	25	11	.274	.319	.447	.765	*6/HD	NYY
17	Brandon Crawford	101	61	2348	2015	2018	28-31	593	2109	253	548	123	18	299	188	35	469	24	0	27	61	20	14	.260	.324	.422	.746	*6/H	SFG

Machado is number 6 with OPS+ 129. Not bad but not overwhelming, especially given his bad attitude and lack of hustle during his walk year, especially bad and stupid in the tournament. In the World Series Machado had no extra base hits and OPS .390. Career regular season: .822.

Machado is first in PA and second in HR to Arenodo 158 to 142.

Carlos Correa is one rank ahead of Machado in OPS+ and Correa has only played SS.

Way down at number 16 is Yankee SS Didi Gregorius, who fields like a demon and hustles like a maniac. Plus his batting has improved each of the last three years. home runs and OPS+:
2016 20 97
2017 25 106
2018 27 120

So comparing Machado and Gregorius in 2018 on home runs and OPS+:
Machado 37 146 (164 with Orioles, 122 with the Dodgers)
Gregorius 27 120

Machado is clearly better but Gregorius is a better fielding SS, how much is difficult to define as fielding numbers are ever changing and continuously searching for substance.

One theme heard is that the Yankees could sign Machado to a BIG long term deal and trade rookie 3B Miguel Andujar for a starting pitcher. So rather than signing a free agent pitcher, the Yankees would trade a VERY promising and inexpensive 3B in order to sign a VERY troubling and troubled 3B/SS for much more than they'd pay the pitcher. How the heck does that make any sense, unless the Yankees are convinced that their fans are craving bad boys and also want free agent outfielder Bryce Harper even though the Yankees already have outfileders Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton.

2018 home runs and OPS+:
Machado 37 146    Paid $16,000,000
Andujar 27 126    Paid about $535,000

Let's run the 3B/SS batting numbers for 2018 for at least 502 PA:

Rk	Player	OPS+	HR	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Alex Bregman	156	31	2018	24	HOU	AL	157	705	594	105	170	51	1	103	96	2	85	12	0	3	15	10	4	.286	.394	.532	.926	*56/47
2	Jose Ramirez	150	39	2018	25	CLE	AL	157	698	578	110	156	38	4	105	106	15	80	8	0	6	2	34	6	.270	.387	.552	.939	*54/D
3	Manny Machado	146	37	2018	25	TOT	ML	162	709	632	84	188	35	3	107	70	18	104	2	0	5	26	14	2	.297	.367	.538	.905	*65
4	Anthony Rendon	137	24	2018	28	WSN	NL	136	597	529	88	163	44	2	92	55	5	82	5	0	8	5	2	1	.308	.374	.535	.909	*5
5	Matt Chapman	136	24	2018	25	OAK	AL	145	616	547	100	152	42	6	68	58	0	146	9	0	2	18	1	2	.278	.356	.508	.864	*5
6	Eugenio Suarez	135	34	2018	26	CIN	NL	143	606	527	79	149	22	2	104	64	7	142	9	0	6	20	1	1	.283	.366	.526	.892	*5/6H
7	Xander Bogaerts	135	23	2018	25	BOS	AL	136	580	513	72	148	45	3	103	55	4	102	6	0	6	14	8	2	.288	.360	.522	.883	*6/H
8	Nolan Arenado	133	38	2018	27	COL	NL	156	673	590	104	175	38	2	110	73	10	122	3	1	6	16	2	2	.297	.374	.561	.935	*5/HD
9	Francisco Lindor	131	38	2018	24	CLE	AL	158	745	661	129	183	42	2	92	70	7	107	8	3	3	5	25	10	.277	.352	.519	.871	*6/D
10	Trevor Story	127	37	2018	25	COL	NL	157	656	598	88	174	42	6	108	47	3	168	7	0	4	12	27	6	.291	.348	.567	.914	*6/H
11	Miguel Andujar	126	27	2018	23	NYY	AL	149	606	573	83	170	47	2	92	25	2	97	4	0	4	9	2	1	.297	.328	.527	.855	*5D/H
12	Didi Gregorius	120	27	2018	28	NYY	AL	134	569	504	89	135	23	5	86	48	3	69	7	1	9	8	10	6	.268	.335	.494	.829	*6/H
13	Eduardo Escobar	118	23	2018	29	TOT	ML	151	631	566	75	154	48	3	84	52	8	126	5	0	8	12	2	4	.272	.334	.489	.824	*56/H4
14	Johan Camargo	116	19	2018	24	ATL	NL	134	524	464	63	126	27	1	76	51	4	108	6	0	3	13	1	1	.272	.349	.457	.806	*56/H4
15	Jean Segura	112	10	2018	28	SEA	AL	144	632	586	91	178	29	3	63	32	2	69	4	4	6	17	20	11	.304	.341	.415	.755	*6
16	Andrelton Simmons	109	11	2018	28	LAA	AL	146	600	554	68	162	26	5	75	35	2	44	5	1	5	17	10	2	.292	.337	.417	.754	*6/D
17	Mike Moustakas	108	28	2018	29	TOT	ML	152	635	573	66	144	33	1	95	49	5	103	7	0	6	13	4	1	.251	.315	.459	.774	*5D/H3
18	Matt Duffy	104	4	2018	27	TBR	AL	132	560	503	59	148	22	1	44	47	1	93	7	1	2	12	12	6	.294	.361	.366	.727	*5/HD6
19	Trea Turner	100	19	2018	25	WSN	NL	162	740	664	103	180	27	6	73	69	3	132	5	2	0	7	43	9	.271	.344	.416	.760	*6/H

Machado is a solid number three. Gregorius moves up from number 16 to 12, right behind Yankee teammate Andujar.

Why pay a lot of money for a headache to fill a hole that you don't even have?