Presumably the Manny Machado tour of possible teams is over! Machado met with the Phillies today after spending the previous night getting wined and dined by Aaron Boone and company of the Yanks. There’s no doubt that the top three choices, Yanks, Phillies and White Sox have the money to land Machado, the question is, who is willing to pull the trigger. The Yanks, who claim to be an operational “Death Star” have not played the part as of yet. Sure, they re-signed Happ but that was only 17 million as a hit for this year. They did give CC 8 million and Gardy, basically 10 million bringing the full hit this winter to $35 million is signing, not exactly a “Death Star”. Moving for Machado would send a message to the league, proving the evil empire is back and that the Yanks are serious about stacking the chips to win a championship. The team, as is right now, can definitely challenge for a division/title, but do we want to challenge or be the favorite, the team that other teams look at as the team to knock of the pedestal. I truly believe that if the Yanks don’t sign Machado, they will sign Harper and vice versa. The Yanks are slow playing, not looking to jump at the top offer, pulling some leverage back that if the empire isn’t willing to spend the cash, who will. Reports are saying that a decision might not come until as early as January, thing is, it’s not the Yankee style. Expect that if the Yanks do sign Machado or Harper, it will happen much sooner than later!