WASHINGTON, D.C. — For Manny Machado, it was, perhaps, his final ovation in an Orioles uniform, stuck in the unexpected limbo that was the 2018 All-Star Game.
Trade rumors floated across Nationals Park for most of the afternoon. Machado, batting seventh in the American League lineup and starting at shortstop, was still Baltimore’s representative at the Midsummer Classic, but for how much longer, no one knew. All the news pointed toward a deal that would send him across the country to the powerhouse Dodgers. On Tuesday night, though, nothing was official. Machado was Schrodinger’s Oriole: Simultaneously with his team and already gone.