The Contract
Manny Machado is a very good player. There is also a decent chance he doesn’t live up to the ten years, 300 million dollar contract with the Padres. He earned that contract by being one of the most talented baseball players in the world but has also admitted to not being a guy who hustles hard every single game. That is a tough look for a guy who will be making 30 million dollars a season until he is in his late 30s.
He had a good, but not great, year in 2019. He is judged based on the bar he set in the first half of his career so his .256/.334/.462 slash line isn’t good enough. He did hit 32 home runs and have 85 RBIs which are decent power numbers but guys making 30 million dollars a season might need to be a little bit better than that. He didn’t even represent the National League in the All-Star game last season which is a tough look after taking so long to pick a team.
It is certainly possible that Machado does end up living up to this contract. It really wouldn’t hurt the White Sox all that much if he does live up to it because he is out in San Diego. The White Sox and Padres almost never meet unless it was in the World Series besides a few regular-season games every few years. Either way, it is good for this young White Sox team to not be locked into a player like that.