For the second consecutive winter, the Major League Baseball free agency market has been slow-moving. With pitchers and catchers having already reported to Spring Training and games beginning in one week, a number of the top free agents remain unsigned.
That includes the two top players on the market, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, who are holding out hope that a team will offer them the long-term lucrative contract they and their agents have desired all winter.
Machado has surprisingly not had many suitors despite coming off a career year with the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers. He hit a combined .297/.367/.538 with 37 home runs and 107 RBI in 162 games.
One team that has ramped up their pursuit of Machado is recent weeks though is the San Diego Padres. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, they recently met with the 26-year-old for a second time:
San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller flew to Miami last week and met with free-agent infielder Manny Machado, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
The Padres are currently in the midst of a rebuild, so it is unclear how much interest they actually have in signing Machado and if he as any interest in taking his talents to San Diego, where he might not get the chance to compete for a World Series right away.
San Diego has also met with Bryce Harper and pursued former Miami Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto before he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies which signifies that they are at least attempting to try to compete in an NL West division that is as weak as it has ever been.
The other teams with known interest in Machado are the Chicago White Sox and Phillies. There could be other unknown suitors as well, but the Dodgers are not believed to have much interest in retaining the four-time All-Star.
