Manny Machado undergoes season-ending knee surgery

As announced on the Baltimore Orioles’ official Twitter account …

Everything went as planned with Manny Machado’s knee surgery today. Get well soon, Manny. #Birdland

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) August 27, 2014

“Manny’s surgery went real well,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter told MASN’s Roch Kubatko. That was good to hear …What they thought was going to happen and what they thought they were going to find.”

Machado is hoping to be ready for the start of spring training in 2015, but that can’t be guaranteed. This is the second time in as many years that the young infielder has been shut down early by a serious knee injury. He snapped the medial patellar ligament in his left knee last September when he stepped awkwardly on the first base bag and then tore a ligament in his right knee on August 11 of this season after falling on a hard swing.

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The Royals are in agreement with right-handed reliever Drew Storen on a minor league deal, the team announced Friday. Per Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the deal is worth $1.25 million if the veteran righty breaks camp with the club this spring. Additional, albeit unspecified incentives will be included in the contract as well.

Storen, 31, is coming off of a protracted absence from any MLB duties. After inking a one-year deal with the Reds in 2017, he sustained a right elbow sprain toward the end of the year and underwent Tommy John surgery that October. He was effectively decommissioned for the club’s entire 2018 run and generated little interest around the league this winter, perhaps due in part to the uninspired 4.45 ERA, 3.8 BB/9, 7.9 SO/9, and career-low -0.2 fWAR he posted across 54 2/3 innings during his last healthy season.

While it’s not immediately clear what kind of performance the Royals can expect from Storen in spring training, they’re not exactly in a position to be choosy. Their bullpen ranked dead last among all MLB teams with a collective 5.04 ERA, 4.85 FIP, and -2.2 fWAR last year, and still appears to be in a state of flux as they approach Opening Day. Skipper Ned Yost told reporters Wednesday that he intends to eschew the traditional closer appointment in 2019 and will instead utilize a combination of right-handers Wily Peralta and Brad Boxberger, lefty Tim Hill, and various others as he tackles high-leverage situations in the future.