After Mother’s Day weekend, the San Diego Padres are leading the NL West. They are well-positioned to make a postseason run.
It is quite reasonable to expect A.J. Preller to make a couple moves by the deadline to strengthen the roster in such a scenario. However, considering the franchise’s future, Preller may trade away certain internal players in the upcoming years.
One Padres star, $350 million slugger Manny Machado, was described by Zachary Rotman of Fansided.com as “untradeable.”Machado is a 33-year-old with a seven-year contract that will pay him almost to $40 million a year even if he were playing at his usual star level. Rotman writes, “a price that almost no other team would be willing to meet.” “This version of Machado, though, will be nearly impossible to trade, and again, that’s without mentioning his full no-trade clause.”
Given Machado’s costly contract and no-trade provision, Rotman’s designation of him as a “untradeable” player makes sense. There is only one problem, though: the Padres probably have no plans to trade Machado at this moment or in the near future, if at all.
On July 6th, Machado, who is currently 33, will turn 34. By the time his Padres contract expires in 2033, he will be older than 40.
With 38 games played, 161 plate appearances, a.191 batting average, a.647 OPS, and an 82 OPS+, Machado’s difficulties this season have raised serious long-term concerns.
Theoretically, it would make sense to trade him. The Padres may break free from his enormous contract, use the money to sign younger, better players, and eventually reclaim their position as a contender.
But why should the Padres even think about dealing Machado? Preller doesn’t need to let go of him anytime soon, if at all, because he is the cornerstone of the team and isn’t all that awful on the field or in the clubhouse.
Machado may be guaranteed a spot on the Padres roster till 2033, but that was probably the team’s original intention. The Padres probably won’t think about dealing a franchise mainstay like Machado, even though it could make sense in principle.
He may be “untradeable” in the sense that a club finds it difficult to take on a portion of his $350 million contract. However, this “untradeable” concern isn’t really an issue because Machado was probably never going to be available for trade anyhow.
