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MLB Trade Rumors: Arizona Diamondbacks ramping up pursuit of Manny Machado?

By Jason Evans

BALTIMORE, MD - JULY 01: Manny Machado #13 of the Baltimore Orioles catches a ball hit by Ian Kinsler #3 (not pictured) of the Los Angeles Angels to end the game in the ninth inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on July 1, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)
BALTIMORE, MD - JULY 01: Manny Machado #13 of the Baltimore Orioles catches a ball hit by Ian Kinsler #3 (not pictured) of the Los Angeles Angels to end the game in the ninth inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on July 1, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images) /
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The Arizona Diamondbacks continue their pursuit of All-Star shortstop Manny Machado.

The Arizona Diamondbacks window to a championship is shrinking. Zack Greinke takes up too much of their payroll. Patrick Corbin and A.J. Pollock are free agents after the season and are most likely going to be too expensive to keep. Paul Goldschmidt is a free agent the year after that. Their time may be right now and with that in mind, they may continue to dip their toe in the rental bat market like last season when they traded for J.D. Martinez.

Five games separate the first place Arizona Diamondbacks from the fourth place Colorado Rockies. Adding a bat the caliber of Manny Machado to go with Pollack and Goldschmidt and if Steven Souza Jr. can come back healthy would give them a heck of a middle of the order to go with a solid starting pitching staff.

The Arizona Diamondbacks could use more production at shortstop. Nick Ahmed is hitting .223 with a .694 OPS. Going into today, Machado is hitting .311 with a .944 OPS.

A problem for the Arizona Diamondbacks is that their farm system isn’t great. If they get into a competition with the Los Angeles Dodgers for Machado’s services for example, it’s going to be hard for them to come out on top.

The Baltimore Orioles need a bit of everything, especially pitching. If I’m the Arizona Diamondbacks, I have to go all in so I offer something like this:

It’s three of the Arizona Diamondbacks top prospects, including two of their top 10 according to MLBpipeline.com. They keep Jon Duplantier and Taylor Widener, who are their top two prospects but they do lose depth.

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The Arizona Diamondbacks have to get Manny Machado. It could be that move that puts them over the top in the NL West and could possibly lead them to the pennant.

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