Kansas City Royals should learn from Padres signing Manny Machado

And sure, the yearly average of Machado’s deal, $30 million, could be seen as tough to swallow. But it shouldn’t be tough to swallow for fans. Adding that chunk would still leave the Royals payroll under where it’s been between 2015-2018.

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Plus, it’s the owner, David Glass, who pays that. He, like all professional sports owners (okay, maybe not NHL ones) can afford these types of deals, and still build a competitive team around the acquisition.

But therein lies the rub. Baseball has turned into a game not about winning championships but winning championships in the most economically feasible way possible.

Stated differently, it’s about figuring out to with the World Series on the cheap.

That is why the Royals will not be learning from the Padres’ bold move: the team is building through the farm system. It’s a slow, arduous task. (Just ask the Padres). But the fruit of the labor could be long-sustaining, cheap success. (Just ask the Astros.) Then again, the team could lose plenty of fans through the lean years. (Just ask the 1986-2013 Royals.)

Next time a young free agent superstar reaches the open market, one can hope that his or her favorite small-market team might be willing to open up the wallet to sign such a player.

Ron Fowler and his cohorts just gave San Diego Padres fans something that organization hadn’t had in years, something small-market teams rarely have against deep-pocketed owners from Los Angeles to New York:

A fighting chance.

So next time, here’s to Dayton Moore and David Glass willing to do the same for their team, and their fans.