It is official: Dodgers acquire Manny Machado from the Orioles

The Dodgers have acquired Orioles’ slugger Manny Machado in exchange for a package of a prospects. Ken Rosenthal’s report confirmed that the trade was made official after some hand wringing during the day over physicals because its the Orioles.

The Phillies, Diamondbacks, and Yankees were all big contenders in the Machado race this deadline.

So what’s Baltimore getting out of this deal? Exactly what they need to accelerate their rebuild. In exchange for Machado, the Orioles will receive a slew of prospects including Yusniel Diaz along with four other prospects.

Diaz, who just put an an impressive performance at this year’s Futures Game becoming the second player ever to homer twice during the game, is ranked as the Dodgers’ No. 4 prospect and No. 85 in all of baseball. He’ll be traveling to Baltimore by way of Double-A Frisco, where he’s batting .314 with 6 home runs in 220 at bats.

Dean Kremer is the Dodgers’ 28th ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline and has made some noise this season as a righty on the mound with a plus fastball and big curve ball. The development of his other offerings has allowed his stock to rise this year and he has seen time in high-A and Double-A in 2018.

Zach Pop is an interesting name in this trade because while he isn’t a ranked prospect at this point, he is having himself quite the year in the minors as a reliever.

Subsequent reporting from Rosenthal indicated that no money is changing hands between the two teams, which keeps the Dodgers under the luxury tax for this season although leaves them with little wiggle room to fill other needs without shedding some salary first.

Machado has explicitly said that where ever he ends up next, he’ll be playing shortstop. This bodes well for the Dodgers, who will be without Corey Seager for the remainder of the season. The Dodgers have seemingly come back from the dead this year, reinventing what looked to be a disastrous 2018 circa April to now being 1st in the National League West. Machado isn’t just a presence in the batter’s box—he’s also a Gold Glove winner. So not only will Los Angeles be getting extra reinforcement offensively to an already stacked lineup, but have a strong defender in the hole. The final piece of the puzzle? Figuring out the pitching staff.

In his seven years with Baltimore, the 26-year old has an average slash of .283./335./487, sending a career high 37 long balls in 2016. This year, he’s already hit 24.

We aren’t out of the chaos woods yet: Machado hits free agency at the end of this year, and we’ll have to relive this circus all over again. But for now, with the young slugger heading west, the Dodgers could not only end up back in the World Series, but take the title for themselves.