One month into the season, the Baltimore Orioles find themselves in last place in the AL East with an 8-20 record, but executive vice president Dan Duquette still isn't ready to commit to trading star shortstop Manny Machado.
"We're still evaluating our club for 2018," Duquette told Eduardo A. Encina of The Baltimore Sun. "Basically, we still need to figure out where we're going to be, so I think we need a little bit more time to do that," the long-time executive added, pointing to Memorial Day as the benchmark.
Following the season-ending elbow injury to Corey Seager, there was some conjecture that the Los Angeles Dodgers would make a push to acquire Machado. General manager Farhan Zaidi remained non-committal on the topic, though.
Despite the calendar only just turning to May, the Orioles are in a precarious position, sitting 13 games back of the division-leading Boston Red Sox. As of May 1, Baltimore possesses a 0.1 percent chance of making the postseason, according to FanGraphs projections.
Machado, 25, will be eligible for free agency following the 2018 season and there is little expectation that the Orioles will be able to retain the star infielder. Through 28 games, Machado is posting a .361/.448/.676 slash line with nine home runs and two stolen bases.
