Baltimore Orioles: Machado out for the full five games

Major League Baseball finally sent out it’s final decree in the Manny Machado suspension appeal earlier today. The Orioles’ third baseman will in fact be suspended for five games, starting tonight vs. Texas. Machado will miss the entire series with Texas at home, as well as Friday’s fourth of July game in Boston. Machado will be eligible to return to the 25-man roster on Saturday.

Machado of course was suspended in the wake of the situation(s) which occurred on June 6th and

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June 8th against Oakland. He was suspended for one game as a result of in essence getting in Josh Donaldson‘s face on the 6th for what he interpreted as an overly-harsh tag. He was suspended for four games for throwing his bat on June 8th, after being intentionally thrown at twice.

The Baltimore Orioles really felt that they had a legitimate shot at getting the suspension lowered by 1-3 games, so this wasn’t exactly the news they were expecting to hear. Machado had his appeal heard last week, at a hearing that was also attended by GM Dan Duquette. However this was the decision that was reached, and the Orioles and Machado have no choice but to honor it.

Ryan Flaherty is expected to play third base in Machado’s absence, and the Orioles will have to play with only 24 men on the roster. The Birds still need a starter for tomorrow night, which will make for some interesting roster decisions in the next 24 hours or so.