Padres Sign Manny Machado

The Manny Machado sweepstakes are over. The San Diego Padres have landed the star shortstop. Machado has landed a $300 million contract over the course of 10 years. This is a huge financial commitment to Machado. It’s by far the largest contract ever given out by the San Diego franchise. It’s the biggest free agent contract in the history of American sports.

Mark Feinsand had the details on the contract:

The Padres previous offseason saw them landed Eric Hosmer to a $144 million contract. That deal was the largest in franchise history. Machado’s new deal now doubles. Can we now stop bitching about a potential strike? Machado got $300 million. I’m sure he’s doing just fine.

Machado, 26, posted a career-high .905 OPS in 2018. Machado spent time with the Orioles and Dodgers finishing with a batting line of 297/.367/.538 slash line, 37 home runs, 107 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. The former 3rd overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft, posted a career-worst defensive runs save mark in 2018 as well. That came as a direct result by switching to the shortstop position. -13 was the 3rd worst mark by any shortstop in the majors. He was always known as a gold glover at the hot corner but will play short for San Diego obviously given the nature of this contract.

Prior to this agreement, the Padres had an estimated payroll of just $75 million. The Padres are also a very bad team. San Diego won 66 games last year and finished in last place in the NL West. I’m not sure this move makes them significantly better. The good news is the Padres have one of the better farm systems in all of baseball.

It’s a bit shocking to see the Padres win this race. All we heard was talk surrounding the Phillies, White Sox, and Yankees. Those are the three teams that met with Machado. The White Sox even signed his best friend (Jon Jay) and traded for his brother-in-law (Yonder Alonso) as a recruiting mechanism. In the end, the Padres win the race and will remain irrelevant.

I will always remember Machado as the final out of the 2018 World Series. It was the perfect ending. A scumbag that took out the knees of Dustin Pedroia only to strike out and look like a complete fool. Good luck in San Diego. I’m sure he will run hard to first on a last place team.