After five-and-a-half seasons in the big leagues, Manny Machado is finally moving to his natural position full-time.
Manager Buck Showalter confirmed Saturday the Baltimore Orioles will play Machado at shortstop this coming season, with Tim Beckham sliding over to third base.
Buck said Machado will play SS and Beckham will play 3B #orioles
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) January 27, 2018
Machado has played some shortstop in the big leagues, most notably spending 45 games at the position when J.J. Hardy was injured in 2016, but by and large he has been a third basemen with the O's.
On one hand, moving to shortstop raises Machado's valuable immensely. He's a fantastic fielder who can handle the position defensively, so putting him at the up-the-middle position helps the Orioles. It also helps his Fantasy value.
I'm guessing most everyone will draft Machado to play shortstop even though he can't be used there right away.
— Scott White (@CBSScottWhite) January 27, 2018
The question is whether this pushes him into the first round. There's a case to be made for it. https://t.co/jb8GPoFD2Y
On the other hand, the O's are not adding a new player at third base. They're just flipping Machado and Beckham, so while Machado gains value with the move, Beckham loses a little something by moving to the less-valuable position. They're rearranging the furniture, not knocking out a wall and remodeling.
Also, keep in mind Machado has had surgery on both knees already in his career. Asking him to move so much laterally at shortstop might not be the best thing, defensively. It's not necessarily the potential for another knee injury -- though that is a concern -- it's that his lateral mobility may not be what it once was. Obviously the O's feel this is worthwhile, however.
Moving from third to short in his final season before free agency will ostensibly help Machado's free agent stock, though I'm not sure how true that is. I think there's a better chance it hurts his stock more than it helps. Right now, potentially interested teams are probably assuming Machado can play short. If he played third base all year, they'd still look at him as a shortstop candidate.
But, if Machado plays short this season and shows diminished range, it could hurt him a bit. The assumption now is he can play shortstop. Playing the position and playing it well won't tell teams something they don't know. Now, that said, Machado is going to get paid no matter what position he plays, and he'll still cash in huge as a free agent regardless of position.
Machado, 25, is a two-time Gold Glover at third and he'll try to bounce back from his subpar .259/.310/.471 (107 OPS+) batting line with 33 home runs in 2017 -- subpar by his standards, anyway -- with a strong 2018 season heading into free agency. Beckham is under team control through 2020 and hit .306/.348/.523 (131 OPS+) with the O's last year.
