Nice Work, If You Can Get It

The Padres have reportedly signed third baseman Manny Machado to an eleven-year extension worth $350 million. Lucky Machado. And happy, from the sounds of it. “We’re excited to be here for the rest of our careers and have this hat go into the Hall of Fame,” Machado told a group of reporters yesterday. Apparently, nobody thought to ask Machado who “we” is or how he—or they, it’s all so confusing—knows the cap is going to Cooperstown, or why. For fun, I checked the stats for Brooks Robinson and Mike Schmidt, the two best third basemen ever in my book; both were productive at age thirty-seven. Production declined noticeably after that, though Robinson did manage to win the last of his sixteen Gold Gloves at age thirty-eight. According to baseball-reference.com, Machado most resembles Adrian Beltre through age twenty-nine, and Beltre ended up with 3166 hits. If Machado keeps up that pace, then he’s entitled to use either first-person singular or plural, whichever he wants. But if his tools start to erode midway through the extension, the Padres will have a very expensive first baseman or DH on their hands. This is part of what makes baseball so much fun—fans get to see how it all plays out. I can’t wait.