Perfect Vision

Y2Jimmy has already said that the Sox aren't being cheap and has implied that the offer is (or will be) much greater than that. I'd bet good money that the Sox fed this info to Bob in order to depress the Phillies offer.

IMO the two most likely scenarios where Machado doesn't sign with the Sox are in the event that he wants to play for the Yankees so badly that he is willing to sign there for materially less money, or JR has put a hard cap on the amount of money he's authorized Hahn to offer and the Phillies beat it. Neither of those is the fault of Hahn or KW. Putting the money aspect aside, I think Hahn and KW have done everything they possibly could to bring Machado here, from meeting with him and taking him around Chicago, to putting video presentations together, to bringing in Alonso and Jay (and possibly Castillo before). I applaud those efforts whatever happens. I think they deserve our appreciation when this is all over and I hope the fans don't give them a hard time if either of the above-referenced scenarios come to pass.

We know that the entire Phillies front office is flying to Vegas to meet with Harper on Saturday. The flight from Philly to Vegas is something like 6 hours nonstop, so it's certainly possible they are flying out Friday and not returning until Sunday. Knowing that a Machado decision is coming very soon (within a week per reports), this really doesn't seem like something a front office would do if they were in the middle of finalizing a contract, making arrangements for a physical to be done, and holding a big press conference. Also, fwiw, Jim Salisbury edited his NBC article to remove the statement that the Phillies were preparing to make another offer to Machado to just say that the Phillies were "in negotiations" with Machado, or something like that. Seems like a noteworthy edit.