After a sensational year for the Red Sox, the Yankees progressing wouldn’t be the worst thing. The rivalry will only force Boston to continue being great.
As the Manny Machado free agency saga continues to drag out through the month of January, there still seems to be many suitors for the 2018 Dodger. Although the Phillies and White Sox currently seem to be leading the stakes, with the latter rumored to be offering an 8-year deal, the Yankees remain in the conversation. With Machado and Bryce Harper the faces of free agency, this year, it’s obvious that there’s going to be plenty of interest, from teams with plenty of salary room to play with, specifically. However, should the Red Sox be scared of a potential Machado-Yankees deal coming into play? The answer is no.
With a roster as good as what they currently have, there shouldn’t be anything to be scared about when you’re the Red Sox. As the Sox go into the 2019 season trying to defend their World Series title, seeing Machado in the famous pinstripes would only make for a more enticing year all around.
With Joe Kelly leaving for Los Angeles this winter, some of the bad blood will leave the historic rivalry. After the bout between Kelly and Tyler Austin back in April, the rivalry was ignited again, to some lengths. However, the Red Sox 3-1 ALDS win against New York in October showed that there are still ways to go for the Yankees if they want to compete with Boston. The Yankees 100 win season was overshadowed by Boston’s 108 wins and falling to the Sox in the postseason will only make New York more hungry going forward.
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A Yankees team with Machado, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton would certainly make for a rivalry more intensified than if Machado wasn’t on the roster. Through his time with the Orioles, Machado has also formed a very distasteful relationship with Red Sox fans. There’s currently no other player in the majors that competes with Machado when it comes down to ‘boos’ from the Fenway faithful. Machado’s baseball skillset and the history between him and the Sox fans would form a basis for a very interesting contest between the two most storied franchises in the history of the game.
Machado went 41-for-164 against Red Sox pitching this past season – a .250 average which isn’t exactly fantastic from your star player against the leading team in the game. Although Machado has found some success against Boston in the past with the Orioles, the most recent memories he’ll wish to forget. Machado was the final out of the 2018 World Series, falling victim to another phenomenal Chris Sale slider.
If Machado did join the Yankees, this would be a harder place to perform than he’s endured in the past. The pressure he will feel will be incomparably different to what he felt in Baltimore. He has had experience with this kind of pressure in LA, but that looks to be just a rental-like tenure.
Whoever the highly sought after infielder signs with, he’ll likely be a huge success. Whether or not the Sox will see him regularly or not will remain to be seen. Albeit, it’s a win-win kind of situation – you either don’t have to put up with him much or the rivalry with New York reaches a temperature that hasn’t been touched since the Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter days. The Sox remain the team to beat, however, and they must concentrate on keeping this current roster ready to defend the title this year.