THAT YANKEES & MANNY MACHADO RUMOR IS BACK AGAIN!

I guess I see something completely different than NJ.com and Ken Rosenthal do. Maybe my crystal ball is broken or something. I'm not sure but there's been a lot of Manny Machado talk over the last week involving the Yankees. We are connected to virtually every big name in baseball but sometimes it really just doesn't make sense....

And I think this is one of those scenarios. In case you missed it, check THIS out and think about it. The Yankees were chasing after Machado back in 2019 when it made more sense. Even then, I didn't think the Yankees were going to sign him because they were even more focused on their white whale Gerrit Cole.

But here we are again. Machado isn't even a free agent and the Yankees and the Mets are supposed to be in the mix for his services IF he becomes a free agent after 2023. I think that would be a big IF honestly. There's a lot to break down on this one.

Let's start with the fact that the Yankees have a franchise-record payroll near $290 million for luxury tax purposes...yikes! That's a lot of money for a team that hasn't won a championship since 2009 and already have a lot of long-term contracts on the books including newly re-signed team captain Aaron Judge.

Now let's add in a major log jam of infielders within the Yankees organization. There's already talk about Anthony Volpe being ready for the majors in 2023 and giving him shortstop duties until Oswald Peraza is ready to be called up for him to take over the position and moving Volpe to second because he has the lesser arm. That's waiting while the Yankees still have other big-league players in positions that aren't the most desirable. So let's add more confusion to the mix and more money.

Do I think the Yankees are the most logical fit for Machado? No. We have too many other bad deals on the books. Not to mention, the Mets like to spend money like it is going out of style AND the Padres are expected to do everything they can to extend Machado to keep him in San Diego. 

I think the Machado ship has sailed. The Yankees concern at third base right now should be to get rid of useless and expensive Josh Donaldson and move something more serviceable there. That really wouldn't be hard to do. We can upgrade third base without Machado and.....it just makes more sense.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj