John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated
Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning during the regular season you’ll get a fresh, topical story to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
SAN DIEGO — On the cusp of a personal milestone that puts him on the Hall of Fame highway, and thick in the very early MVP discussion, Manny Machado says he wants to avoid talking about one subject: Manny Machado.
“We have a great group of guys here,” says the Padres' third baseman. “I don’t want it to be about me. All I want to do is play baseball and let that do the talking for me. Just baseball.”
“So, we can talk hitting?”
“Oh, no. That’s when things go bad. It’s like a jinx. If it’s after the game, about something that happened in the game, that’s cool.”
Without amplification, Machado has never been better. His batting average (.329), on-base percentage (.401) and adjusted OPS (173) are at career-high rates. He is taking the extra base 64% of the time, another career best, without once making an out on the bases. His defense at third base keeps getting better, in part because he plays seven feet deeper than he did seven years ago, allowing him to showcase his extraordinary range and arm.
That Machado is having a career season while shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. misses half the season recovering from a broken wrist adds to his MVP argument. He has finished four times in the top 10 in MVP voting, but never won it. Along with a lockdown six-man starting rotation that could dominate a postseason series, Machado is a major reason why the Padres have thrived without Tatis—and why San Diego has become an electric baseball town that understands this team is good enough to win the franchise’s first World Series.
Now is as good of a time to appreciate Machado, especially as he approaches 1,500 hits, with each one pushing his controversial past into the bin of an immature youth. Machado begins this weekend with 1,494 hits, including 260 home runs.
John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated
Turning 30 years old July 6, Machado will become just the 17th player to get halfway to 3,000 hits and 500 homers before age 30. Twelve of the 14 Hall of Fame–eligible players to reach those milestones that young are enshrined in Cooperstown. (The exceptions are Alex Rodriguez and Andruw Jones.) Two others are likely to join them in the Hall when they become eligible: Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera.
The career numbers of Machado most resemble those of Cal Ripken Jr. before age 30, with Machado holding slight leads in doubles (291–285), homers (260–217), batting average (.282–.272) and OPS (.831–.806). In a more modern context, Machado is the hits leader of a stellar group of players born in 1992, which includes MVP winners Bryce Harper, Mookie Betts and Kris Bryant; and MVP runners-up Aaron Judge and José Ramírez.
“The most impressive thing about Manny is that he posts every day,” Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer says. “I think there’s not enough appreciation for guys playing through stuff. And seeing him play through a lot of things that have been nagging him over the years is something teammates appreciate, but a lot of people might not know.”
Machado has played in 96% of San Diego’s games since he signed a 10-year, $300 million contract with the Padres before the 2019 season. He can opt out of that contract after next season, when he will be 31 years old with five years and $150 million remaining on the deal. He still resides in Miami.
“That’s home,” Machado says. “Always will be. That’s where my family is. I’m lucky. I have two great places to live: San Diego and, around November, I always go home to Miami.”
Without Tatis, the Padres are Machado’s team. He is flourishing in the absence of the superstar shortstop, who has yet to play more than 130 games in a season but has been celebrated as one of “the faces of baseball” because of his highlight-friendly explosive play. Last September, during the Padres’ two-month collapse, Machado screamed at Tatis in the dugout, yelling, “It’s not about you!” and “You go play baseball,” after Tatis reacted angrily to a called third strike. Tatis has yet to swing a bat this year because of the broken wrist. Team sources do not expect him back until July from what has been a slow-healing injury.
Two years ago, Machado told then Padres coach Wayne Kirby, “I’m ready. I’m ready to be a leader.” The opportunity is more apparent than ever without Tatis. Machado delights in arranging group golf outings and dinners.
“Team dinner in Milwaukee, golf trip in Cincinnati … He’s always doing stuff like that with the team,” Hosmer says. “What sets him apart is that his demeanor is just so relaxed. You wouldn’t know if it’s a spring training at bat or Game 7 of the World Series. He’s always so relaxed. He just has that ease about him. He never seems like anything is speeding up on him. He’s just nice and cool, calm and collected.”
John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated
For much of his career, Machado seemed to be a walking, kicking, bat-throwing controversy waiting to happen. Machado was suspended five games in 2014 for throwing a bat, four games in ’16 for charging the mound and one game in ’19 for aggressively arguing with an umpire. There was the late slide into second base in ’17 in which he reinjured the left knee of Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, and the late slides and the kicking of first baseman Jesús Aguilar in the ’18 NLCS against Milwaukee.
Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich called out Machado after the incident with Aguilar, calling it “a dirty play by a dirty player.” Yelich told SI then, “The guy showed the whole world right now his true colors … He’s had a history. It happens once with him? It’s an accident? The fourth or fifth time? It’s intentional.”
Such controversies have ebbed. This year Machado is changing the narrative of who he is as a baseball player. Turning 30 and reaching milestones, he has made good on letting his game do the talking.
“It’s nice to see what he has become,” says Mets manager Buck Showalter, his former manager in Baltimore. “More than great instincts, what he has is great imagination on the field. He is able to see a way to make a play, to fling a baseball sidearm if he has to, and be extremely accurate.
“One of the special things about Manny is that he is so loose-jointed. We had to tie down his knees with a procedure in Baltimore because they were so loose. It’s the same way with his shoulders and elbows.”
In a statement series for San Diego this week, Showalter saw up close what his former player and the Padres have become. After New York took the opener for its 38th win (the most in the National League entering Friday), the Padres stomped the Mets the next two nights by a combined score of 20–2. Starting pitchers Yu Darvish and Sean Manaea combined for 14 innings while allowing the Mets only five hits and one earned run. (No rotation throws more innings than the Padres’ crew.) And Machado drove in four runs and pounded out three more hits, moving closer, and quietly, to halfway to 3,000.
