Clarifying some things about Kevin Acee’s Manny Machado Padres culture article

A lot of attention was given to the article Kevin Acee wrote on Friday about the San Diego Padres culture. Some of the reaction was about the actual information in the article while others, as you can see below, had thoughts that had nothing to do with the information (what I mean by that is people disregarded what Acee wrote because they’re not fans of Acee).

Here were some of the things fans wrote on Twitter (or X):

“Man this guy hates the Padres”

“It’s time to run you out of town”

“Enough of your misinformation”

“A hit piece against a player who doesn’t give you the time of day. Lazy and inaccurate as usual”

Former Padre Yonder Alonso said “Kevin Acee is a BUM”.

Of course Acee has gotten some information wrong in the past but in this piece he talked to Manny Machado for 30 minutes to get his thoughts on what he was hearing from “more than 30 conversations with more than a dozen uniformed personnel, including eight players, and other members of the organization”.

This was not a hit piece. It was not lazy. Machado knew it was coming just like many others knew as well.

“Most people knew it was coming. This wasn’t sprung on anyone. There wasn’t anything in the article that Manny didn’t know about. There wasn’t anything that A.J. Preller or Bob Melvin didn’t know about,” Acee told Jon Schaeffer and Jim Russell Friday on San Diego Sports 760. “I don’t mean like they knew every detail but they knew what was coming and they knew, especially Manny, in a very specific way.”

Acee spent months gathering information from inside the clubhouse and then got quotes from the main subject. It’s not like Machado didn’t say anything that was concerning. He did.

The 31-year-old doesn’t believe much in the importance of team culture. Machado recognized there could be “a lot more” team unity. This wasn’t all just Acee writing up these red flags.

Kevin Acee in the San Diego Union-Tribune

Acee also made sure to point out that the Padres problems this season weren’t all on Machado and he wasn’t the only one not following through on things addressed in team meetings through the season.

“Machado, according to multiple players, was by no means the only one who often did not put what was said into practice,” Acee wrote. “The failure to turn words into winning play was endemic, as the results show.”

Machado was the one that backed up Juan Soto’s quitting quotes earlier this season in Seattle. Another red flag.

Kevin Acee in the San Diego Union-Tribune

I thought this was fair reporting on Acee’s part. This was not an opinion piece. It was based on quotes from Machado and information gathered from guys who share the clubhouse with him.

Some fans may not have liked the information that was put in the article but that doesn’t mean those things should just be disregarded.