With the World Series beginning on Tuesday, SI's Ben Reiter identifies the biggest questions entering one of the most enticing World Series of the decade.
1. Manny Machado: Hero or villain?
We know how the Red Sox feel about their former A.L. East rival; Tom Verducci dug into their longstanding animus for him on Sunday. Machado hasn’t helped his broader reputation by admitting that he often chooses not to hustle, and by intentionally running over the heel of Brewers’ first baseman Jesus Aguilar during the NLCS, resulting in a $10,000 fine. The shortstop almost certainly has a maximum of seven games left in his Dodgers’ career—they’re extremely unlikely to offer him what might approach a record free agent contract, not with Corey Seager returning next year and Justin Turner entrenched at third—and this is Machado’s chance to reverse the narratives that now swirl around him, and perhaps recoup at least a few million dollars that his antics might prove to cost him this winter.