It needs to be asked: Is Manny Machado elite anymore?
The San Diego Padres’ third baseman has had a great career, making seven All-Star teams, winning three Silver Slugger awards, two Gold Gloves, and four finishes in the top five of MVP voting. But at age 33, it seems like he may no longer be a great player.
2025 marked his third straight season with an OPS under .800, although his .795 mark was still good enough to earn the Silver Slugger award, mostly thanks to hitting 27 home runs. In 2026, he’s
still hitting home runs (10) but that’s about all he’s doing at the plate. His .174 batting average is about 100 points lower than last year, and he’s striking out at a career high rate. To top it off, the onetime Platinum Glove winner isn’t even grading out well defensively.
He’s not alone in his struggles. Fellow All-Stars Fernando Tatis, Jr. and Xander Bogaerts are also hitting below their career averages. They’ve been offset somewhat by better-than-expected production from Ty France and Gavin Sheets, but it seems unlikely that the Padres will be able to sustain their winning if the stars don’t start performing like it.
Machado has seven more years on his current contract, so the Padres certainly hope that his struggles are temporary. Then again, at his age, elite status might be permanently behind him. Considering how poorly he’s played this year; they’d probably be happy if he could just find a way to be a good player again.
Pennant year song battle
Patriotism (or anti-patriotism) wins the day. It’s a Mistake finally loses the crown at the hands of I Didn’t Raise My Boy to be a Soldier by the Peerless Quarter. Can they hold on to the title now that Memorial Day is behind us?
The next contender is in honor of Wednesday night’s starter Cristopher Sanchez and how many players scored runs against him in May. From 2008, it’s No One by Alicia Keys.
Vote for the winner:
Additional thought about the series
A 4-2 record on a trip through San Diego and Los Angeles is more than respectable, but it seems unlikely that they’ll be able to keep winning on pitching alone.
Adolis Garcia seems to be receiving the most criticism – and he certainly deserves criticism – but the Phillies’ offense has far more than one hole. The player who should be receiving the most flak is the one who is supposed to be a franchise cornerstone (The Phillies and Padres could compare notes on albatross contracts) and has been batting in the top two of the order all season despite poor results. (To be fair, there’s no obvious choice to replace him there.)
When Trea Turner struggled in Spring Training, I wasn’t concerned, because it seems silly to get worked up about Spring stats for an eleven-year veteran. But the struggles carried over into the regular season, and he got even worse in May, putting up a .529 OPS for the month.
With two home runs against the Padres, there was some hope that he might be turning things around, but a 2-12 showing against the Dodgers doused those hopes. A low BABIP indicates there might be some bad luck involved, but you also might think that a top of the order hitter who is slumping might try to walk more. However, he only took five free passes in the month of May.
Like Machado, Turner is owed a lot of future money by the Phillies, so they’d better hope this isn’t a permanent age-related decline. And no, before anyone suggests it, we shouldn’t give him another standing ovation to get him back on track.
