A Potential Snag? There is No Machado Deal Yet

Tuesday afternoon and into the evening, it almost appeared certain: Shortstop Manny Machado would be traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  From the Phillies end, both Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, last indicated that the Phillies had no reason to believe that they were out of the Machado sweepstakes yet.  And they may not be.

There is reason to believe that Phillies might have a good idea what is going on.

Phillips was a contemporary of Orioles general manager Dan Duquette.  While Phillips was a general manager for the New York Mets, Duquette was general manager of the Montreal Expos and then the Boston Red Sox and the two collaborated with one another extensively.  Duquette's cousin, Jim Duquette, was an assistant general manager to Phillips with the Mets.

While some have pined that this report does not come from the typical Heyman/Rosenthal/Morosi/Olney/Crasnick crowd, there is still no deal even after it was regularly called "close" and "very close".  But the Orioles have a history of physicals not going according to plan and deals being canceled.

Last trade deadline, the Houston Astros believed they had a deal for closer Zach Britton. At the last minute, the deal fell through.  A later report said that the deal fell through because of "nixed physicals", quoting annoyed Astros owner Jim Crane.

Other deals have fallen through with the Orioles in the past due to physicals, including reliever Grant Balfour, Tyler Colvin, and others.

Update: Jerry Crasnick of ESPN says there is nothing to show that the trade is "steaming towards the finish line".