REPORT: There Are Now Mystery Teams In On Manny Machado

The Manny Machado to White Sox talk has really picked up momentum. No matter who, or what you want to believe, the team has either offered Machado a seven or eight-year deal ranging from $200 million to $250 million. The White Sox have put themselves into a pretty good spot this offseason to sign Machado and although the rumors have heated up this past week it still doesn't seem like his decision will happen soon. Why? Well, we have some good old negotiating through the media happening right now. So, Sox twitter went into a frenzy Sunday night after Jeff Passan's report that said Machado has an eight-year offer on the table from the White Sox. Hector Gomez backed up the report and added that according to his sources the deal is for $250 million.

Sweet. First of all, that would be a bargain for the White Sox. Yes, that's not up to debate. If you disagree, you're a communist. Anyway, after those two bits of details, we got Bob Nightengale and Bruce Levine pushing back on the reported eight-year deal.

The low end of Bruce Levine's reported deal for Machado would be a total of $175 million for seven years, which would absolutely absurd. Not really sure what the motivation would be for the White Sox pushing that narrative through Levine and Nightengale other than trying to keep the number low, but Nightengale and Levine feeding the smaller contract is just pissing off fans. You can also speculate that Passan continually saying the White Sox could offer as much as 10 years to Machado is coming from Machado's camp in order to increase the price. The two teams linked to Machado since the start of free agency have remained the same, White Sox and Phillies. The Yankees had a meeting with Machado, but they keep signing infielders and although they haven't publicly said they're out on Machado there hasn't been anything strongly linking them to him as of late. Let's go back to the reported figures. Eight years for $250 million, or seven years for $175 million - $210 million, those are way under what Machado was expecting to receive. So, if those numbers are right, Machado definitely wants to drive up the price. How do you do that? Mystery teams! Jon Heyman was the first to say that according to Machado's camp, there was a mystery team involved.

But what's better than just one mystery team? More mystery teams! Via SNY.

Additionally, there is more than one unidentified team still pursuing Machado. The "mystery team" concept is often mocked for good reason, but we hear reliably that it's true in this case.

The big point of that article isn't necessarily that there are more mystery teams in on Machado, but that he won't give the Yankees a discount to sign with them, or that it doesn't really matter that the White Sox traded for his brother in law.

Not really the biggest revelation there, but all this points to one thing for me, Manny Machado isn't going to be signing this week. Passan went on ESPN 1000 on Monday and said that both Machado and Bryce Harper want to reach the $300 million mark. Still short according to the recent reports for Machado, so expect the process to drag out. And good for Manny. Get that money.