The San Diego Padres were one of the big winners of the 2019 offseason as they won the bidding for Manny Machado. He had a solid first year with the Friars. Here are two props available to wager at Mybookie on Machado’s and the Padres’ 2020 MLB season – assuming there is one – and an overview.
Manny Machado MLB Awards Odds & Analysis For 2020 Season
- NL MVP Award: Machado is +3500
- Odds to win NL West: Padres are +1100
In 162 games between the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018, Machado batted .297 (188-for-632) with a 6.2 WAR (FanGraphs) .367 OBP, .538 SLG, .905 OPS, 35 doubles, three triples, 37 home runs, 107 RBI (career high), 70 walks, 14 stolen bases and 84 runs scored. The 26-year-old tied for the most games played in MLB and finished T-3rd in hits, 4th in total bases (340), T-6th in multi-hit games (54).
Only six times in Padres history had a player hit more home runs in a season than Machado did in 2018. The last to do so was Adrian Gonzalez (40) in 2009. Thus, you can see why the power-starved Padres wanted him.
Machado and Bryce Harper were the most coveted free agents last offseason, and for a while there, Machado was the highest-paid player in MLB history. He signed a 10-year, $300 free-agent deal with the Padres, which included an opt-out after the fifth season and a limited no-trade clause. Machado’s contract has since been passed by a few players, but he had a fine first season with the Friars.
He led the Padres in runs (81), XBH (55) and BB (65), ranked T-1st in runs created (86), 2nd in HR (32), RBI (85), total hits (150), games played (156), at-bats (587) and plate appearances (661) and was third with 21 doubles. Machado became the 18th Padre to record 30 HR and 20 2B in a season (last: Wil Myers in 2017). He joined Hunter Renfroe as the 2nd pair of Padres teammates to have 30+ HR campaigns in the same season (also: Phil Nevin’s 41 and Ryan Klesko’s 30 in 2001).
Machado killed left-handed pitching, ranking among NL leaders in several categories. He was T-1st in SLG (.685), T-6th in HR (13), 8th in OBP (.404) and T-9th in AVG (.315). On the flip side, he struggled against right-handers. Machado’s.239 AVG was 8th-lowest, his .400 SLG was 9th-lowest and his .315 OBP was 10th-lowest. However, 19 of his 32 HR came against righties.
In a four-game series at Colorado from June 13-16, Machado posted a 1.655 OPS, going 10-for-19 (.526) with 2 2B, 3 HR, 6 RBI and 1 BB. His 1.655 mark was the 2nd-highest OPS of any player in a 4-game series in 2019 (min. 19 at-bats), behind Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon’s 1.917 OPS in that same series.
On July 20 at Wrigley Field, Machado hit his 200th career homer, a 2-run shot off Jose Quintana. In doing so, he became the 2nd-youngest third baseman (27 years, 14 days old) to hit 200 HR in ML history, behind Eddie Matthews (25 years, 242 days).
Manny Machado is now 1 of just 3 players to hit 30+ home runs in each of his last 5 seasons (2015-19), joining Nelson Cruz and Nolan Arenado. Machado ended 2019 as 1 of just 10 active players with 5+ 30 HR seasons.
If there’s reason for concern from last year, Machado recorded the lowest barrel percentage (8.0) since the 2015 season and struggled to produce on non-fastballs. On breaking and off-speed pitches, he hit just .211 and .135, respectively. He crushed fastballs to the tune of a .306 average with 23 home runs.
His batted balls were relatively similar to previous years – 17.1 percent line drives, 41.8 percent groundballs, and 41.1 percent flyballs – but Machado may have been the victim of bad luck, recording a .274 BABIP.
Defensively, Machado had a .960 fielding percentage at third base in 119 games and a .973 fielding percentage in 37 games at shortstop last year. Both numbers were similar to league-average values, but he did commit 14 errors.