I love Machado, and if being close friends with Almora reflects that he's a smart competitor who loves to play and loves to win, like Albert, that would be a great fit for the clubhouse, long-term. I love Almora's hustle and instincts, so if you added another guy like that who could hit with power and play middle-infield, that would be awesome. (Other than always wanting to slide into 1B!
But really, really hard to see how it could make any sense. If you added Machado, who could you have to trade other than Happ or Russell? And would either of those be the kinds of centerpiece guys that Baltimore would want in exchange? They are so bad, I'd think they'd want volume of young minor-league guys with upside. Granted, I'm not very creative, so maybe there could be a package, but with our relatively barren farm system, it's hard to see us really making good sense.
Other point from Cubs side is that even *IF* he was willing to sign an extension with Cubs, he's still going to only do that if it's at FA-caliber magnitude. So you'll still need to pay massive FA commitment, even if you do get that.
But yeah, given that the Cubs kind of live-and-die with their offense, and that we're a little short on HR's and middle-of-the-order sluggers, adding one more big-time bat could really help, for this year and the next handful also....