The Padres And Manny Machado Make It Official
In a span of a couple of years, the San Diego Padres have traded for Juan Soto, Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Josh Hader and Joe Musgrove, signed Manny Machado, Ha-Seong Kim, and Xander Bogaerts, and brought in elite manager Bob Melvin.
If that doesn’t scream “win-now mentality”, we don’t know what does.
Not only did they sign Machado to a 10-year, $300 million contract in early 2019, but they also extended him to another 11-year, $350 million pact.
Machado had announced he was going to be using his opt-out clause to get out his original contract after this season.
He leveraged that into the recent 11-year pact he signed.
That agreement is now official, as the Padres made the announcement via Twitter and a press release.
The Man(ny) is staying in San Diego.
The #Padres have signed Manny Machado to a new 11-year contract. Details: https://t.co/hWH00XKPN6 pic.twitter.com/qOktXI0wzR
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) February 28, 2023
The Man(ny) is, indeed, staying.
The Padres, who recently gave Bogaerts $280 million and invested several top prospects to bring in Soto and Hader, weren’t particularly keen on letting Machado test the market.
As we learned this offseason, elite players will get nearly $300 million, or even more in some cases.
Machado’s best move was ensuring his extension now rather than after the season.
He is coming off his best season ever as a 30-year-old, with 7.4 Wins Above Replacement, a .298 average, 32 home runs, and Gold Glove-caliber defense at third base.
Waiting until the offseason to sign could have meant he risked his future earnings with an injury or a down season.
His agents played the situation masterfully: the Padres knew that if he entered the free agent market, all bets were off.