On Monday, Manny Machado and the San Diego Padres earned an 11-9 victory against the Colorado Rockies. In doing so, the Padres became the last team of the 2023 season to record four straight wins.
The statistic, while fairly esoteric, was indicative of the nightmarish Padres season. Despite having the third highest payroll in baseball, they will miss the playoffs by a country mile.
The fact that the Padres have some of the best players in the modern game baffles many. Any team that has a roster with names like Juan Soto, Xander Bogaerts, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado should, by all rights, have a record better than 73-78.
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“Manny Machado has struggled with ankle, elbow and hand injuries over the past two seasons, and instead of appreciating him, some fans say he is doing this to boost stats when he has already gotten his contract??? This fan base is brain dead sometimes” – Tony
Throughout the season, many pundits tried to explain the team’s woes. Recently, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune questioned Manny Machado’s leadership skills. In June, Acee also claimed that the San Diego Padres had a toxic clubhouse, which affected their ability to win games.
In response, Machado denounced the accusations raised in Acee’s piece. On 97.3 The ventilatorthe All-Star third baseman claimed that clubhouse problems were not to blame and that he simply wasn’t playing well enough:
“I think that’s the way it is in the end. Many quotes from that story are left out, and everyone always has their own story that they are trying to convince. … The real point of this is that we didn’t’ I didn’t play good baseball. I wasn’t playing good baseball.”
After hitting .298/.366/.531 with 32 home runs and 102 RBIs last year, Manny Machado finished second in the NL MVP voting, narrowly losing to Paul Goldschmidt of the St. Louis Cardinals.
After the stellar performance, Machado was rewarded with an 11-year, $300 million contract extension, the largest in team history.
Time is running out for Manny Machado and Padres’ star-studded roster
Despite flashes of brilliance from the roster, the team’s $250 million payroll can only stay together for so long if they can’t win.
Now 20 games behind the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, GM AJ Preller will have some tough decisions to make this offseason. Whether Machado will take any blame remains to be seen.