I think "the edge" is there. This rumor that Machado told his friends he'd like to play for the Yankees means nothing more than he told his friends he'd like to play for the Yankees. We know Harper would like to play for the Cubs too. If Machado really wants that badly enough he could tell the Orioles he would agree to an extension with them right now and be done with it. I think he'll take the Phillies money, especially after being on the team for three months.
When Franco got benched in late June he had a .693 OPS. He's been on a heck of a tear, but mostly against bad teams (including the Nationals, perhaps). I think it is true that Crawford and Kingery can at least match his WAR with defense included, and hopefully their offense will improve. If you rate what Franco has done in the past three weeks you have to be equally willing to discount Crawford's poor start, balanced against what he did after coming back - .770 in June - and what he did last season. And you have to have faith in Kingery's history of adjusting.
But it's also true they might acquire another bat (not necessarily Moustakas. And Merrifield is probably too expensive. But if neither Altherr nor Kingery can provide consistent SLG and they lose Franco, a steady bench piece).
J-Roll always said Middleton was a mini-Steinbrenner. I'm not sure that's a good thing. But Harper and Machado are special because of their age. It'd be dumb though 'cause then you couldn't get Trout. 
