Kansas City Royals should learn from Padres signing Manny Machado
By Cullen Jekel
The Kansas City Royals should learn a lesson from the San Diego Padres after the Padres signed young superstar Manny Machado to a long-term contract.
Manny Machado shocked the baseball world when he signed a ten-year, $300 million contract. Not because of the length or worth of the deal, which seems on par for one of the winter’s two premiere free agents, a 26-year-old four-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner who slashed a collective .297/.367/.538 over 162 games between the Orioles and Dodgers in 2018.
No, he shocked the baseball world because he didn’t sign with either of the Chicago teams, or either of the New York teams, or either of the Los Angeles teams. He eschewed the big-market franchises (or they eschewed him), and Machado signed his hefty contract with a small-market, perpetually rebuilding team that hasn’t reached the playoffs since George W. Bush was still in the White House.
Manny Machado signed with the San Diego Padres.
The Padres, who went 66-96 in 2018. The Padres, who have finished 4th or 5th in the National League West in each of the past four seasons and six of the last eight seasons. The Padres, who last finished above .500 in 2010.
Those Padres.
The signing makes sense. Current ownership, led by Ron Fowler, purchased the team toward the end of 2012. While in that time the organization has made some shrewd moves, including naming A.J. Preller general manager in 2014, trading for Wil Myers, and signing Eric Hosmer last offseason, the Padres–now the only professional sports franchise in San Diego–haven’t enjoyed any success.
But under Preller’s guidance, the franchise is getting there. Frangraphs ranks the Padres farm system number one in the Majors as does MLB.com. Help is on the horizon in the likes of shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., lefty pitcher MacKenzie Gore, and catcher/outfielder Francisco Mejia. Each of those three, along with seven others in the system, made MLB.com’s Top 100 Prospects list.
Still, outside of Hosmer and Myers, the Major League squad wasn’t exactly exciting–but now, with the addition of Machado, it is.