Manny Machado Still Killing It As Theo Epstein Discusses Possible Trades

The Chicago Cubs reportedly had interest in Manny Machado during the offseason and with the Baltimore Orioles already way outside of the playoff picture they're expected to make their star infielder available in the trade market soon. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Cubs will call. Yet, as much as it's been fun to kick around the idea of having Machado join the Cubs infield that already has Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo, if the asking price is high will the front office be aggressive as it was in 2016? Remember, Machado is a free agent after this season and is projected to get a $300 million contract. Right now the Cubs aren't desperate for his bat and by the sound of it the front office isn't too eager to trade away several young assets for a rental. Theo Epstein was on 670 The Score Thursday and told the Bernstein And McKnight Show that the Cubs are sticking to their philosophy of not trading premium talent for half-season rentals. He specifically brought up the Aroldis Chapman trade in 2016, saying that was a special circumstance. Via 670 The Score.

"Look, we've only paid a real premium for a rental one time, and that was when we traded Gleyber Torres for Aroldis Chapman (in 2016)," Epstein said. "And that was a sort of special circumstance in our mind. We felt we had a team that was an extraordinarily strong contender for the World Series, but there were some things going on in our bullpen that led us to conclude there was going to be a real need down the stretch and especially in October, and if we didn't do something, we weren't going to win the World Series."

Machado, 25, is currently having an amazing season with the woeful Orioles, slashing .345/.432/.626, hitting his 10th home run of the season Thursday night against the Kansas City Royals.

There's no doubt in anyone's mind that he's a clear upgrade over Addison Russell, but is Machado really worth trading away a 24-year-old shortstop that plays elite defense at a premium position at the minimum and may have to also trade away more players for 4.5 months of games? Plus, just because Machado gets to spend time in Chicago and with the team doesn't guarantee he'll want to re-sign in the offseason. It's going to come down to the money. So no, don't expect another blockbuster deal for a rental player this July from the Cubs.

"As a rule, we will not be paying premiums for rentals," Epstein said. "We just won't. It's hard to build an organization that way. Let's be honest: We've poured a lot of resources into this team and this group, a lot of crazy dollars and a lot of trade resources. We've made a number of trades over the last few years. If we play ourselves into a position where we can benefit from some improvement and we're a legitimate championship contender, absolutely we will be pushing the envelope to try to get better. But that will probably not include paying a significant premium of future assets for a rental, because we have to build this organization and keep our focus on this group and this year's team and the immediate future in the next couple years but also keep an eye on what's going to happen after 2021. We can't be sacrificing all of our future assets in drafting guys exclusively to trade them. We can't do that. We have to build farm system. It's been used quite a bit to support this group, and we need to start growing the farm back as well."

Well, "probably not," anyway. Plus, it's always made more sense to hold on to Russell this season, go after Machado and Bryce Harper in the offseason and if the Cubs sign one of the two then they can re-evaluate what they have in Russell and potentially trade him elsewhere for any other help the team needs. This is all a moot point because c'mon, they're signing Bryce.