The Evolution Of The Machado Saga

San Diego Padres 3B Manny Machado’s time in baseball has been an interesting one.

Machado arrived to The Show in 2012 as the Anakin Skywalker to Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez’s Darth Sidious, in both the good and the bad sense. He hit home runs. He threw laser beams across the infield. He thought every umpire in the league needed to get their eyes checked. He did pretty bush league s*** running the bases (RIP Dustin Pedroia’s knee) and proceeded to beef with the entire Boston Red Sox organization thereafter. He had a short-lived on-field boxing match with perhaps the pitching version of himself, SP Yordano Ventura. Machado was the only reason anybody wanted to watch the Quadruple-A Baltimore Orioles — something doesn’t feel right about calling them an MLB team.

In 2018, Machado abandoned the eternally-burning ship that is the Orioles when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. All of a sudden, he was playing for a contender. For the first time in his career, the actual bright lights were on him and as it turns out those bright lights were blinding. His numbers go way down come postseason. Worse than that, his childish antics trend upward, too. He’s stepping on first baseman’s ankles and recording singles off balls he’s nuked to the fence. He’s denouncing the concept of hustle. 

I imagine A-Rod was watching this all unfold in a dark room with his hood up, saying to himself, “You’ve done well, my apprentice,” before letting loose a cackling laugh that wakes up fiancee Jennifer Lopez. Mumbles a sleep-deprived J-Lo: “How many times do we have to talk about the cackling, Alex? It needs to stop. It’s weird.”

When the Dodgers lost the World Series that year to the Boston Red Sox, the city of Los Angeles yelled, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Or do let the door hit you on the way out. We don’t care. Just get out and never come back.”

Here’s where we arrive in San Diego — the current hype center of the baseball world. Machado signed a 10-year, $300 million contract with the Padres in 2019 — a seemingly on-brand move for our boy. 

Machado went where the pressure was off, at least momentarily. He essentially pulled a 2B Robinson Canó to the Seattle Mariners — he wanted to play low-stakes ball for some stagnating small-market club where he would always be the top dog. In the mean-time, maybe everybody would forget their hatred of him. Then, who knows, maybe he’d end up with 500 career dingers, make a bunch of All-Star teams and finish his career with enough meaningless statistics to warrant a Hall of Fame consideration — as long as he stays away from the drugs … you know, the ones that make your muscles big.

Obviously, that’s me assuming Machado would’ve gone into his San Diego tenure motivated. His 2019 campaign did have a certain complacency to it. His play was just the right amount of mediocre (he hit .265 with 32 homers) — just middling enough so that people couldn’t create negative headlines about it. I mean, the whole team besides him sucked. Sorry, OF Will Myers and 1B Eric Hosmer, I guess.

Fast-forward another year and — insert record scratch — the Padres were good. Like, actually good.

Guys like flame-throwing SP Dinelson Lamet and Jesus-in-baseball-cleats SS Fernando Tatís Jr., almost as if by magic (in other words, effective minor league player development) rise up out of the woodwork. Slam Diego’s playing inspired baseball. Even Machado probably said, “Well, I’m not trying to be upstaged by Tatís Jr. with the bleached dreads, sexy bat-flips and dance moves.” So, Machado actually tried, and, honestly — in a Freddie Freeman-less NL — Machado might have been the reigning MVP. 

But (and it is a big but) then come the playoffs, and it’s LA all over again. The pressure got to him, he had a headache the whole time, or his dog was sick and he was worried about it. Whatever the reason, Machado just didn’t produce when playoffs rolled around, which contributed to them being swept by a stacked, soon-to-be-champion Dodgers team.

Honestly, who would have thought at the beginning of the season the Padres would’ve been one of the final eight teams playing? (No, shut up. You didn’t.)

Now — and thanks for bearing with me through this history lesson — we’ve arrived at the present. This offseason, the Padres did an astounding amount of wheeling and dealing. Everybody has their eyes glued on San Diego, ready to “witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station.”

In other words, the searing heat of the spotlight has found Machado once again.

So, you ask, what is he going to do? In the anguished words of the little pizza place down the street from me when I asked them how long my pie would take, “I don’t know, I can’t tell the future!”

I just know the expectations are lofty and with his track-record of antics and postseason bed-s****ing, Machado will probably bear the brunt of the criticism if the Padres don’t at least make the NLCS or if he is anything less than his regular-season, MVP candidate-self. It’s sorta the territory that comes with having more talent in your left earlobe than 99% of the population does in their entire body. 

I also know that this upcoming season and the several following this one will be the best opportunities he will ever have to change the narrative and turn away from his Sith-like trajectory. 

But whatever, sink or swim. It’s still going to be fun to watch. Plus, we can all rest assured knowing Machado will always have enough money lying around to either wipe his tears in defeat or bathe in the championship glow.

Cover photo courtesy of Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo