Manny Machado hasn’t had the same amounts of ink spilled on his free agency as Bryce Harper .

.. yet. Right now the environment seems to be that Harper’s decision will get all the attention first (since more teams also appear to be in on him) and the Machado decision will fall into place after that with all the rumors that go with it. But we’ve still got some rumors to look at! The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal Atlanta Falcons T-Shirt , citing his colleague Jayson Stark, says teams like the Yankees are taking an extra hard look at Machado after his postseason antics made headlines. This includes asking about his personality and taking some extra time before committing to him as an option. Which other teams might be doing the same thing, and which of them are making the decision to move forward? I’d be very happy for him to continue his postseason fun with any team he lands on, because it was entertaining, and every team that remotely needs a shortstop (or maybe a third baseman) should be going after Manny with all the enthusiasm they can muster. But every fanbase, clubhouse, and front office is different so not every market would be a seamless fit for his particular brand of stardom. But just to be clear, it’s a wonderful brand of stardom.Yankees Just a few weeks after they attempted to convince everyone they didn’t want Harper or Machado, the Yankees are now doing their due diligence to see how much they actually want the latter. But would he be a fit in New York? Oh hell yeah. Put aside a minute the fact that the Yankees have a shortstop already in Didi Gregorius, who will be supposedly returning from Tommy John surgery around the All-Star Break. The Yankees are a powerful enough organization that they could presumably talk Machado into moving back to third after Didi is healthy again if it means a few hundred million dollars and playing in pinstripes. His actual competitive behavior, if that’s how we’ll put it, would be incredible in New York. I’m shaking in anticipation just thinking about the Post or Daily News back pages if he does something either amazing or terrible. The fans would eat his heel behavior up (see: Aaron Judge trolling the Red Sox in the playoffs) ... with one caveat. He has to be good. We saw this a little during his time with the Dodgers, but if he’s not producing at the plate like a 26-year old superstar should then his schtick could get a little tired. Which is something New York fans jump all over as soon as they see blood in the water. But otherwise this would be great. Ranking the 50 best MLB free agents for the 2018-2019 offseasonThe Yankees are pretending they won’t make big free agency moves and it’s hilarious3 possible motivations behind the Nationals’ 10-year, $300 million offer to Bryce HarperYes, bad teams should sign Bryce Harper and Manny MachadoCubs Right now, the Cubs have a problem. They have a bunch of young stars who are about to get paid, and they have some assholes. But they don’t have young stars who can be entertaining assholes. Before going further, let’s make sure Chicago has room for Machado. Yeah, they 100 percent have room for Machado. It would make sense for them from a talent perspective but his specific brand of trash talk punkery (that’s not a word but I’m pretending it’s a word) would also balance out the wholesome brotherly love act that Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant have going on. That’s not a ding, but the dichotomy between those two cheery guys and Machado’s I’m-smiling-but-I-will-also-turn-on-you-in-an-instant would at least be interesting. White SoxSurprise, the White Sox are also located in Chicago Atlanta Falcons Hats , so the same hunch that Chicago would love his absurdity applies here. With some exceptions (hello, Yoan Moncada) what they don’t have is a big personality that can not only draw crowds if they have a great 2019 but also make them entertaining on a national scale. They have the money, since they’re apparently going after Harper as well, and they have the need. So, yeah, this would also work for Machado. It might work even better than the Cubs, since the South Side team needs a boost far more than their crosstown rivals. Phillies This one might not be a perfect fit, I’ll admit that. But the Phillies are already in on him so let’s take a look and ... oh my god Gabe Kapler trying to manage Manny Machado would be the funniest thing anyone has ever seen and it might actually lead to a disbanding of the organization. There are so many paths for this to go wrong and I want to see them all play out at once and have my body overload like I just took the pill from Limitless. Could you imagine their personalities together? Attempting to agree on nutritional advice or workout strategies. Kapler having to answer for Machado’s lack of hustle in a September game against the Braves. It would be beautiful. Plus, the city of Philadelphia would latch onto Machado like Eagles fans to questionable alcoholic beverages, and the rest of the NL East would be so thoroughly up to the task of booing him, so we should all be rooting for this outcome. Of all the unwritten rules of football, one of the most endearing and persistent is the idea that when it comes to local derbies, anything can happen. Form is irrelevant. So too is financial strength, squad depth, managerial prowess, and anything else you might ordinarily consider relevant when thinking about a match. When two teams are located quite close to one another, things get messy.How true is this? Probably not very. But then, that’s not the point: this is an expression not of fact but of hope. Maybe things aren’t this way, but oh, they really should be. It is an idea that appeals to the old roots of football, to a more chaotic time Atlanta Falcons Hoodie , perhaps all the way back to those pre-modern village-on-village dust-ups. Simultaneously it offers liberation from the iniquities of modern footballing power. Maybe, if we all agree hard enough, the thing that’s obviously going to happen somehow won’t.And as Manchester United’s visit to their nearest and dearest grows nearer, that thought is growing again. What if something weird happens? Maybe even something funny? It is a derby, after all. That lack of travel time plays havoc with reality.If we’re going to talk about something weird, then we should probably start by defining what would be not-weird. Which would be a Manchester City victory, probably quite a comfortable one. They’re just better than United: 18 points better last season, after 38 games, and nine points this after just 11. The City Football Group aren’t idiots, after all. When they mask vast expenditure with a series of elaborate shell companies and inflated sponsorship deals, they do it right. Allegedly.Guardiola’s City will probably end up being regarded as one of the best in Premier League history, while Mourinho’s United 鈥?well, they’re not. (You can put a “yet” on the end of that sentence if you’re feeling kind.) The whys and wherefores of that imbalance are to be debated and contested, of course, but they are there, whoever’s fault it is. That’s the baseline. What should happen.And so, to what could happen. Hope for weirdness comes from two places. The first is United’s recent uptick in form: they’ve picked up four wins in six games, including that comeback against Juventus. And the draw at Chelsea was, from a United perspective, broadly promising if specifically irritating. You’d be lying if you said that these performances were convincing. United haven’t kept a clean sheet since the stultifying draw against Valencia, and this recent run has also included a schooling at Old Trafford by Juve. But on balance Customized Atlanta Falcons Jerseys , United look like a team with something about them. Some invention. A touch of collective belief. Maybe even the first hints of an actual attacking plan. And those are the kind of things ruinously expensive football teams really should have, so that’s nice.The other hope for weirdness to come is the weirdness we’ve already seen. The Manchester Derby is actually pretty productive when it comes to derby wackiness: a 6-1 here, a 5-0 there, a 5-1 over in that direction. Even Alex Ferguson’s all-conquering sides occasionally fell victim to the mysterious powers of proximity.In 2013/14, City went to Old Trafford and produced perhaps the most one-sided 20 minutes of football that the Premier League has ever seen. As a stunned David Moyes looked on, City scored in the first minute, then could have picked up another ten or so as United’s defence stood around, apparently baffled at the sight of footballers passing to each other. Then moving. At pace.Also, it says here that in April 2015, a Manchester United side managed by Louis van Gaal scored four goals. Doesn’t seem right. Subs please check.Most recently, last season. United went to the Etihad for City’s title coronation, conceded two before half-time, and then 鈥?won. City just 鈥?melted. Weird again. Indeed, precisely the kind of formbook-through-the-window weirdness that derbies are supposed to produce. It didn’t mean anything in the broader scheme of things. It didn’t seem to come from anywhere or go anywhere. It just happened. An isolated and bizarre collection of things, occurring on a football field. That’s what derbies are in the imagination, and that’s what they are, occasionally, in real life. Just often enough to keep the imagined idea alive. And given that the alternative is another comfortable City victory, there are certainly worse things to hope for.