Machado: “I played like s***”

Well, Manny Machado said what most Padre fans felt. He/we played like s***. Although, generally speaking it really wasn’t his fault. Nevertheless, he’s the leader.

“That is the lowest in any of his six full seasons by a half-point and not even half his average WAR (6.4) over the previous six seasons.

“I played like (expletive),” he said.

Those questions included one about the belief, held by several people in the organization, that Machado lost interest when the Padres’ games lost meaning.”

The question apparently came up that his effort was lacking towards the end of the season.

To those that think that, I think they’re silly. Complete offense intended.

Why?

Machado is absurdly consistent. When you’re on a team that loses 90+ games, there’s also less opportunity to produce big numbers. Did he perform at an elite level? No. Did he “give up”? Hell no.

That’s simply not the kind of player he is. It was a disappointing final 60 days of the season, but Manny never appeared to give subpar effort. In fact, I saw him diving all over the place as recently as last week.

I appreciate how deeply Manny cares about winning. We saw it at the beginning of the year when he was struggling at the plate. He was desperately trying to live up to the hype. That will die down in year 2. More talent is also on its way, maybe even a free agent acquisition.

Manny Machado was not the problem this year. You can list off plenty of problems, but he’s not one of them.

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