Sources: Machado, Padres reach $300M deal
Jeff Passan breaks down Manny Machado’s 10-year contract with the Padres for $300 million. (0:47)
Manny Machado has agreed to the biggest free-agent contract in American sports history — a 10-year, $300 million deal with the San Diego Padres, league sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Tuesday.
Machado, a four-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner at third base, made $16 million between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles last season.
The deal with the Padres, which is pending a physical, includes an opt-out after the fifth season, sources told Passan.
Padres owners Ron Fowler and Peter Seidler wouldn’t confirm the deal and said discussions are “continuing.”
“Ron and I, we love the city of San Diego, we love sports in San Diego, we’re also well aware of the history,” Seidler said. “There’s never been a championship. … We as an organization, we want to completely change that. We want our franchise to win year after year after year. And we’re going to do whatever we can rationally do to make that happen.”
As Manny Machado heads to San Diego on the largest contract ever given to a free agent, we break down what the deal means for the infielder, the Padres and a certain other available star.
By signing the biggest free-agent deal in sports history, both the player and the Padres knew exactly what they were doing.
A team spending to win? The third baseman’s move to San Diego changes the prospect-packed Friars’ timetable for a return to contention.
The 26-year-old slugger posted a career-high .905 OPS in 2018, finishing the season with a .297/.367/.538 slash line, 37 home runs, 107 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. In 66 regular-season games with the Dodgers, Machado hit .273 with 13 homers and 42 RBIs.
“[He is] a generational talent,” Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer said Monday about the possibility of the team landing Machado or Bryce Harper. “… I think it just shows where this organization is at. Where we’re at, at the process right now. We’re trying to win baseball games. … It’s exciting. It’s motivating.”
San Diego, which has missed the playoffs for 12 consecutive seasons, ranked 28th in the majors last season after averaging just 3.8 runs per game.
Machado has hit 30 home runs in each of the past four seasons; only Wil Myers (2017) has surpassed that mark for the Padres during that span. And only six times in Padres history has a player hit more home runs in a season than Machado did in 2018; the last to do it was Adrian Gonzalez (40) in 2009.
Myers was the last Padres player to start an All-Star Game in 2016, serving in the designated hitter role. The Padres’ last position player to start an All-Star Game was Tony Gwynn in 1998.
“It’s exciting to be able to add a star, somebody like that in the middle of the lineup,” Myers said Tuesday. “I think it lengthens the lineup for us, makes everyone around us better. … Anytime you can add a player of that caliber to your team, you do it.”
Manny Machado has signed the second-largest total value contract in MLB history, behind Giancarlo Stanton’s $325M extension with the Marlins in the 2014-15 offseason.
The Padres have now spent $474 million in free agency over the past two seasons — tops in the majors. Hosmer signed an eight-year, $144 million deal last offseason.
As a comparison, San Diego had spent a combined $309 million in free agency over the previous 25 seasons, which ranked 27th in the majors.
ESPN’s Keith Law ranked the Padres’ farm system as the best in baseball entering this season.
Machado’s signing immediately registered with oddsmakers, as the Padres’ chances to win the World Series improved from 80-1 to 50-1 at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook on Tuesday. In addition, their season win total at the SuperBook jumped from 76.5 to 78.5, and their chances to win the NL West title improved from 30-1 to 12-1.
The Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees had also been considered in the running to sign Machado.
White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams told reporters on Tuesday that he was shocked that Machado chose the Padres.
“I’m wearing my shades, so you can’t see the shock in my eyes,” Williams told reporters at White Sox spring training in Glendale, Arizona. “Very surprised. There are a few other words you could put on that, but still in a little bit of disbelief. … I honestly believe we had the best offer on the table.”
Manny Machado is headed to the Padres on the richest deal ever signed by a free agent. Here’s what to make of the $300 million contract. Winners and losers
• Doolittle: Why the deal makes sense
• Law: Machado accelerates Padres
Machado spent most of this past season at shortstop, his preferred position, and produced the third-worst Defensive Runs Saved total (minus-13) among the 22 players with enough innings to qualify at that spot. He played better at the position upon joining the Dodgers, who gave up five minor leaguers to acquire him from the Orioles on July 18, but his 15-week stint in L.A. was tumultuous.
The former No. 3 overall pick drew incessant criticism for constantly loafing up the first-base line, then fanned the flames when he told Fox Sports during the postseason that hustling is “not my cup of tea.”
“He got booed in Baltimore three weeks before we traded for him,” the Dodgers’ Andrew Friedman said at the general managers meetings on Nov. 6. “It’s not like it was a secret. … I think there are other times where guys do it and they really do care. And by care, I mean the effort they put into their work, the type of teammate they are, and Manny checks all those boxes.”
As Manny Machado signing with the Padres sinks in, here are five facts about the deal that will blow your mind — or at the very least impress your friends:
1. Machado’s $300 million deal is the largest ever for a free agent in American sports history, surpassing A-Rod’s 10-year, $275 million deal.
2. By adding Machado at $300 million after signing Eric Hosmer for $144 million last winter, the Padres have spent more on two players than they did in their previous 25 offseasons combined.
3. Machado was a free agent (113 days) longer than he was a Dodger (102 days).
4. Machado was an All-Star starter in 2018. Who was the last Padres position player to start a Midsummer Classic? That would be Tony Gwynn in 1998. (Though we should note that Wil Myers got the hometown start at DH in 2016.)
5. The Padres signed Machado on Feb. 19, 2019 — exactly one year to the date after they inked Hosmer last winter.
Machado had several big moments with the Dodgers, several of them while the team was fighting for a sixth consecutive division title in September and a few more during a victorious NL Championship Series. But he hit just .182 in the World Series, committing the final out as the Boston Red Sox won the championship.
“There’s not that many guys that get to free agency at that superstar level that are 26 years old,” Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw said Tuesday. “Ten years seems fair, for sure, and getting that $30 [million per] year is great.
“Can’t say I’m happy for him; I guess he’s with the Padres now. But it’s good to maybe get the market going a little bit, for sure. I think [the Padres] took advantage of Manny being out there for so long, got in the mix. Kudos to them.”
Machado was limited to 82 games in 2014, but he has played at least 156 games in each of the past four seasons. He has hit at least 30 home runs and 30 doubles in each of those four seasons, making him one of just two players, along with Colorado’s Nolan Arenado, to reach both of those marks every season since 2015.
He has compiled 29 FanGraphs wins above replacement since his first full season in the majors in 2013, tied with Joey Votto for sixth among position players since then. Only Mike Trout, Josh Donaldson, Paul Goldschmidt, Mookie Betts and Jose Altuve have a higher WAR in that six-year stretch.
Machado’s 175 career home runs is 12 more than the Padres’ all-time franchise leader, which is Nate Colbert, with 163 — the lowest total for any active franchise.
ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez and ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this report.