Bryce Harper, Manny Machado Featured on Sports Illustrated Cover

If you rewind to last year at this time, Manny Machado was the biggest star on the Baltimore Orioles and Bryce Harper was the same to the Washington Nationals. Two local teams. Two megastars.

Now, as you know, things are a lot different. Machado is on his second post-Orioles team, the San Diego Padres, and Harper is a part of the rival, and playoff-bound Philadelphia Phillies.

Luckily, the wounds are sort of old by now, pretty much healed, in my opinion. If that’s not the case, however, you ought to skip the next issue of Sports Illustrated; both Harper and Machado are on regional covers of the Sports Illustrated MLB Preview issue. See below:

On the bright side, both the O’s and Nationals are looking up at the moment. The Nationals are a team loaded with young talent, firmly in the discussion for an NL East crown, while the O’s, despite a lot of losses in the near future, are fully committed to rebuilding the franchise the right way.