Padres, Manny Machado finalizing $350M extension
Star third baseman Manny Machado and the San Diego Padres are finalizing an 11-year, $350 million contract extension, sources conversant in the deal informed ESPN.
Machado mentioned final week that he meant to decide out of the ultimate 5 years (and $150 million) of his present contract with the Padres following the season after preliminary negotiations on an extension broke down. While Machado had set a Feb. 16 deadline to achieve a brand new deal, conversations continued.
At 30 years previous, Machado is coming off arguably one of the best season of his profession, hitting .298/.366/.531 with 32 residence runs and 102 RBIs. He completed second in National League MVP voting and led the Padres to the National League Championship Series, the place they had been ousted by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Machado’s arrival in San Diego in 2019 on a 10-year, $300 million deal signaled a brand new period for the Padres, who’ve but to win a World Series of their 54-year historical past. Shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. joined the Padres as a rookie throughout Machado’s first season in San Diego, and whereas the group struggled to a 70-92 end, it thrived within the COVID-shortened 2020 season, bought a major increase with the acquisition of star outfielder Juan Soto final 12 months and continued to spend this winter with the signing of shortstop Xander Bogaerts to an 11-year, $280 million contract.
San Diego presently carries the third-highest competitive-balance-tax payroll in Major League Baseball at greater than $266 million, based on Baseball Prospectus. With greater than $600 million owed to Tatis and Bogaerts, nine-figure extensions for right-handers Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove, and Soto’s impending free company after the 2024 season, the query of whether or not the Padres would retain Machado was among the many most outstanding in baseball this spring.
As not too long ago as final week, it sounded unlikely. The Padres, sources informed ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, had provided Machado a five-year, $105 million extension on high of the six years and $180 million he is owed, together with this season. Machado was searching for considerably greater than the $25.45 million a 12 months Bogaerts acquired and mentioned he deliberate to decide out.
“Markets change,” Machado mentioned.
Baseball’s actually had since Machado signed with the Padres following an extended winter during which he and Bryce Harper, the opposite obtainable star, did not signal their megadeals till late February. San Diego become a powerhouse, hoping to catch the Los Angeles Dodgers for NL West supremacy this 12 months after beating them within the division sequence in 2022.
In 4 seasons with the Padres, Machado has hit 108 residence runs and pushed in 340 runs whereas hitting .280/.352/.504 and flashing a glove that has gained a pair of Gold Gloves at third. San Diego did not let the failed negotiations the primary time round deter them, bumping their provide by greater than $50 million as proprietor Peter Seidler known as extending Machado “my top priority” this spring.
Had Machado reached free company off a typical 12 months, the curiosity in him would’ve been way more plentiful than the final time. The New York Mets had been seen as a very good match for him, and others would have stepped up as suitors, however Machado’s want to stay in San Diego amid its championship push helped drive the perimeters towards a deal.
In Machado, the Padres locked up a participant not solely on a Hall of Fame monitor however whose greatest baseball has come as he has aged. Like Bogaerts and Darvish, Machado shall be signed into his 40s as soon as the deal is accomplished, and it will take him nicely previous twenty years within the massive leagues.
Machado debuted with Baltimore simply after his twentieth birthday and grew right into a perennial high 5 MVP candidate by his fourth season, when he hit .286/.359/.502 and hit 35 residence runs — one among six 30-homer-plus seasons. His mixture of energy, above-average plate self-discipline and an elite glove and arm made him an plain offense-defense mixture, and no lineup in baseball boasts a foursome as fearsome as him, Soto, Bogaerts and Tatis, the latter of whom can rejoin San Diego on April 20 after his performance-enhancing-drug suspension ends.
The last deal is the fourth-largest assure within the recreation’s historical past, behind Aaron Judge, Mike Trout and Mookie Betts.