Mike Trout Contract Caps off $1.32B Spent on Four MLB Players
By Manny Gómez
Manny Machado came up with the Baltimore Orioles at the young age of 19 and immediately turned heads with his offensive and defensive ability. Originally, Machado wasn’t much of a power hitter, slugging a combined .434 in his first three big league seasons.
With age, however, Machado became one of the rare breeds of athletes who could smack 30 dingers in a season with regularity. In fact, beginning in his fourth big league season, Machado’s ability to hit for power has gotten better and better. He slugged a career-high .538 in 2018.
Defensively, Machado has always fared much much better, especially as a third baseman. Since 2012, at 3B, Machado features a 61.7 defensive rating (Def) on FanGraphs. That’s tops among all 3B in the same time span. Directly behind him, the 2nd player on this list (next slide), Nolan Arenado has a 50.4 (Def)
Not everything is good with Machado, however. The elite infielder carrier what some would characterize as a bad attitude on the field, highlighted by his attitude on and off the field during the 2018 postseason.
All that being said, the San Diego Padres still decided to honor Machado with what was at the time, the biggest contract in American professional sports based on AAV. On February 21, 2019, the Padres and Machado agreed on a 10-year, $300M deal ($30M AAV).
Machado would hold the mantle for close to a week. Then, close to a week later…