San Diego Padres sign 3B Manny Machado to an 11-year $350 million contract
Few teams have improved their position as much as the San Diego Padres have in this off season, and now they secure Manny Machado for a very long time
Southern California baseball has always been about the Dodgers. The Angels barely figure into the conversation and the Giants are way up in the Bay Area. And the little brother to the Blue juggernaut has always been the San Diego Padres.
Well not so much any more.
Few teams in baseball have improved their situation this off season as much as the Padres have. It is a few years in the building and has begun to pay dividends, with the Padres beating the Dodgers in the NLDS last year.
The acquisitions of Juan Soto, Xander Bogaerts, and Fernando Tatis have given the Padres a boon, and while those players’ contracts will each have to be viewed individually in time, the Padres have made one move to guarantee their long-term success.
They have done an extension deal with third baseman Manny Machado for 11 years and $350 million. Machado is coming off perhaps the best season of his career, slashing .298/.366/.531 with 32 home runs and 102 RBIs, a performance that saw him finish second in National League MVP voting. He has made the All-Star roster in each of the last two seasons.
The deal is currently being finalised but will include a full no-trade clause and no opt-outs. Machado will be a Padre for over a decade, seeing him contracted into his 40s. But the Padres are happy to make the deal, giving them a player who is on a Hall of Fame trajectory and playing the best baseball of his career.
With the current Padres lineup, they would have to be near the top of anyone’s list of post season hopefuls. And if they can stay healthy, they could be on the way toward tilting the landscape of Southern California baseball a little further south than Orange County.