Padres sign Manny Machado to a 11-year, $350 million extension

[AlNipper49]

I'm a Padres fan and I love it. Machado is damn good ballplayer and I'm psyched to have him locked in for the next decade. Machado/Bogey/Tatís is about as good a foundation as you could ask for. All the better if they can find a way to retain Soto.

That's the weird thing though. Out of that group I'd go through significant effort to retain Soto over the other three. His ceiling is the highest, his age is on the correct side and there isn't as large an injury concern. That's not taking into consideration the capital used to acquire him. I'd be pretty bummed if those signings reduced my ability to retain Soto. Perhaps the only knock is that he's the only one of the bunch who can't play a skill position, though one of those three (Tatis) will be adopting a new position in a non-skilled area.

 

[8slim]

I'm a Padres fan and I love it. Machado is damn good ballplayer and I'm psyched to have him locked in for the next decade. Machado/Bogey/Tatís is about as good a foundation as you could ask for. All the better if they can find a way to retain Soto.

As you should. I get that people think these deals will be atrocious albatrosses in 8 years, but if the Padres are largely title contenders from now until then... whatever. It also makes MLB a lot more interesting to have teams building in radically different ways.

 

[Petagine in a Bottle]

Amidst all the gushing over Soto, what’s the explanation with his decline in slugging? He’s gone from 695 to 534 to 452 the past three years. He hit 236 / 388 / 390 with the Padres. Not that’s he’s likely to be available anytime in the next few years but he’s seen a pretty big drop in LD % the past few years which seems pretty weird. Granted he was so good that he can decline and still be great…

 

[BigSoxFan]

Amidst all the gushing over Soto, what’s the explanation with his decline in slugging? He’s gone from 695 to 534 to 452 the past three years. He hit 236 / 388 / 390 with the Padres. Not that’s he’s likely to be available anytime in the next few years but he’s seen a pretty big drop in LD % the past few years which seems pretty weird. Granted he was so good that he can decline and still be great…

I think there is a lot of noise in the decline. The 695 high point was during a 47 game sample due to COVID. He definitely had a dip last year and I think he slugged like .370 at Petco in a small sample. ISO power was way down but his exit velocity figures looked fine as did his hard hit %.

We’ll see how he does this year but I don’t see any reason for alarm. Sometimes weird seasons just happen. Assuming no injuries, I expect a season in line with his career averages with potential upside for much more. His counting stats should improve this year given how nasty that lineup figures to be.