Manny Machado to the New York Yankees was never close to happening. The club never made a formal offer to the superstar infielder.
Manny Machado signed the largest free-agent contract in history. He’ll move to beautiful southern California and play for an up-and-coming San Diego Padres franchise.
San Diego is a hop skip and a jump away from New York City. Much like the distance between the cities, Machado and the New York Yankees were far apart during negotiations. According to James Wagner of the New York Times, the Yankees never made a formal offer to Machado.
Yankees never made a formal offer to Manny Machado, per a source, although they hosted him at Yankee Stadium. Machado wanted to top Giancarlo Stanton’s 13-year/$325M deal, and although his reported amount is a free-agent record, Yankees didn’t want to offer something that large.
— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) February 19, 2019
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. After the Yankees signed Troy Tulowitzki and DJ LeMahieu, it became clear that the Yankees weren’t interested in adding Machado to the infield. If nothing else, they didn’t think he was worth the long-term deal he was looking for.
Machado signed with the Padres $300 million over 10 years. The Yankees clearly didn’t feel that Machado was worth that type of investment.
Obviously, he would make the Yankees a better team in 2019. But his presence would come at the expense of Miguel Andujar. The Yankees aren’t sold on Andujar’s defense, but he can do damage with the bat. Perhaps the Yankees are willing to leave their young infield consisting of Andujar, Gleyber Torres, Didi Gregorius, and some combination of Luke Voit and Greg Bird intact.
Of course, some will say that the Yankees are cheap for letting Machado sign with San Diego. But they have a huge contract on the books with Giancarlo Stanton. Not to mention, they have a ton of cornerstone players who they will need to sign at some point in the near future. Gregorius, Aaron Judge, and Gary Sanchez are a few of those names.
