This winter’s Major League Baseball’s free agency class was highly-touted over the past few years, as it was due to feature the likes of a pair of the sport’s biggest stars in Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.
But for the second consecutive year the free-agent market has been slow-moving, with many teams unwilling to spend lavishly presumably due to luxury tax threshold implications.
Tuesday marked a monumental day for the sport though as Machado finally found a new home, reportedly agreeing a 10-year, $300 million contract with the San Diego Padres. The contract will be the largest in the history of North American sports for a free agent.
Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who traded for Machado at last year’s deadline when he was in the midst of a career year with the Baltimore Orioles, spoke highly of the deal, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
#Dodgers Andrew Friedman on Machado signing: “obviously they (#Padres) are taking a big swing. It’s great for Manny, great for the Padres.”
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) February 19, 2019
While Machado played a big part in the Dodgers returning to the World Series for the second consecutive year, the team did not show much interest in retaining him this winter with All-Star shortstop Corey Seager due back from injury.
It will be interesting to see if the Padres signing Machado puts any pressure on Friedman and the rest of the Dodgers brass to make a move to respond, such as signing Harper. That would take the team over the luxury tax threshold though, which all indications point to them being unwilling to do this season.
Even with the addition of Machado, the Padres are not expected to be ready to compete for a division championship in 2019. However, they are believed to still have interest in signing Harper as well, which could further change their outlook.
