MLB Roundup 12/15: The Orioles don’t want Manny Machado on the Yankees

The Orioles would like to trade Manny Machado to a team who won’t just turn around and trade him to the Yankees

This Manny Machado thing is starting to get a little weird in a way that only the Orioles could make something weird. They clearly are ready to move on and re-tool a bit, and since they don’t believe they can re-sign Machado they’d like to move him. That makes sense! What doesn’t make sense is that they are shunning the one team that could be confident in re-signing him and therefore the team that would likely offer more than most. It doesn’t hurt that said team has a bevy of young talent, either. The Orioles simply won’t deal him to the Yankees, though. I think that’s extremely dumb on their part, but it’s very good news for the Red Sox. However, Baltimore is now terrified that whoever they do trade him for will turn around and flip him to the Yankees. An easy way to avoid that would be to allow an extension-negotiation window with other teams so they could try to lock Machado up long-term, but Baltimore won’t do that either. I rarely know what the Orioles are doing, and that continues to be the case here. The only thing I am sure about is that, some way or another, Machado will be on the Yankees within the next 12 months.

Cardinals trade Stephen Piscotty to Oakland for good reasons

I’ve gotten to the point where I am cynical about every action taken by multi-billion dollar corporations. It’s probably not the healthiest way to go through life, but they’ve given me no choice. That being said, the Cardinals did a very good thing this week and deserve props for it. Stephen Piscotty, a young outfielder in St. Louis, is from the Bay Area. His mother still lives out there and is currently going through some serious health issues. Earlier this week, the Cardinals shipped Piscotty to Oakland for a couple of prospects. They got some solid talent in return, but it seems as if they were simply trying to help out one of their players who asked to be traded out there so he could be closer to his mother. Good on you, St. Louis, for doing a very good thing.

• The Rule 5 draft came and went on Thursday and it was uneventful from a Red Sox perspective. Boston didn’t take anyone with their pick and they didn’t lose anyone in the major-league portion of the draft. They did select some minor leaguers, for what it’s worth. Anyway, you can see all of the results here.
• Fernando Rodney signed a one-year deal with the Twins, presumably to be their new closer. The former Rays closer is still kicking around heading into his age-41 season and I’m convinced he’ll be a closer for the next decade.
• The Padres are the clear-cut favorite for Eric Hosmer, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. He is obviously also a Red Sox target, so this is a big deal. However, I generally live by the idea that the Padres aren’t the clear-cut favorite for anyone until I actually see it happen. Plus, Nightengale doesn’t have the greatest track record among MLB reporters.