Several Milwaukee Brewers players made their feelings known about Manny Machado during the NLCS earlier this year, and Christian Yelich was among the most outspoken. However, that does not mean the star outfielder would be opposed to playing alongside his playoff foe.
During a brief chat with TMZ at the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year ceremony in LA this week, Yelich was asked how he would feel about the Brewers opening up their checkbook for Machado.
“It’s part of the game. It wasn’t anything too crazy,” Yelich said of his team’s feud with Machado. “It’s nothing that would be a real hostile beef or anything, at least on my part. … If we ended up crossing paths again being on the same team I’m sure we’d be able to work that out.
Yelich called Machado a “tremendous player and a tremendous talent,” which is a much different description than the one he had for him after Machado clipped Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar in the leg while running out a routine ground ball in Game 4 of the NLCS.
We’ll probably never know how Yelich truly feels about Machado, because the Brewers aren’t believed to be a contender to sign the former Los Angeles Dodgers star. In reality, there’s probably a decent chance Machado will end up being teammates with someone he rubbed the wrong way at some point. Between his dirty antics and some of the remarks he has made about hustling, he has become quite the polarizing figure over the past several months.
