Manny Machado has held down the hot corner for the San Diego Padres since signing a 10-year, $300 million contract before the 2019 season. He has played third base well and, for the most part, been the player Friars fans expected when he left the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He hasn’t hit fewer than 27 homers, his 2025 total, in any of the full seasons since, being either the No. 1 or No. 2 item on the checklist for opposing pitchers to be aware of in the Padres lineup. There is veteran depth to give Machado some rest and keep his bat fresh, but there is nothing imminent in the prospect pipeline.

Padres Third Basemen At A Glance

Starter: Manny Machado
Backup: Sung Mun Song, Miguel Andujar
Depth: Jose Miranda
Prospects: Jorge Quintana, Deivid Coronil
Padres fWAR ranking last year: Ninth out of 30.
Padres fWAR projection this year: Ninth out of 30.

The Good

One of the anchors of the Padres’ offense, Machado bounced back from a subpar, by his standards, 2023 season due to a constant pain in his right elbow to put together similar campaigns in 2024 (.275/.325/.472 slash line) and 2025 (.275/.335/.460). Even the home runs (29 and 27) we nearly identical, while he drove in 105 runs in 2024 to 2025’s 95, while reversing that trend when it came to runs scored (77 and 91). He earned down-ballot NL MVP votes each of those seasons.

Machado enters 2026 as a 33-year-old, meaning the right-handed hitter should still be producing as the elite hitter that he has been in his career. While he might have lost a little from his 7.1 fWAR season of 2022, when he finished second in NL MVP voting following a .298/.366/.531 slash line with 32 homers and 102 RBIs, he still is an impact bat in the middle of the Padres’ order. Part of the reason new manager Craig Stammen is tinkering with the top four in his lineup during spring training is to make sure that not only is the offense maximized, but that Machado has the protection he deserves.

Defensively, Machado remains solid. He makes a lot of plays seem routine and never panics. Every throw seems to be a perfect chest-high toss to the first baseman. He also posts every day, having played in 150 or more games every full season (except 2023 with the ailing elbow) since 2014, when a knee injury ended his year early. With reinforcements brought in to play third base in Song and Andujar in particular, Machado could get some time off his feet and still remain in the lineup as the designated hitter, not only keeping him at the top of his game defensively, but more importantly offensively as well.

The Bad

Machado turns 34 in July. He signed an 11-year, $350 million contract that began in 2023, which means he is on the books through 2033. That deal is light on the front end, with Machado having earned $17.09 million each of the last two years, increasing to $25.09 million this year and jumping to a franchise-record $39.09 million next season, the figure he will make until the deal expires when he is 41 years old.

The Padres certainly won’t be getting MVP-caliber performances for the final eight years of that contract, but he has also been underpaid the last three seasons and will be this year, too. The Friars are hoping to get another three or four good seasons out of Machado offensively before any decline starts to take place. He struck out 131 times in 2025, two shy off his career worst in 2022.

How that affects him defensively is something else to consider seeing as his metrics have slipped in recent years, but that is a discussion to be had down the road. For now, Machado is easily the best defensive option at the hot corner on the roster.

The Bottom Line

Machado is the present and the future at third base until he proves he can’t handle the position, at which time he either moves to first base, left field, or DH. But again, that is at least a few years away. Machado’s fewest games at third base with the Padres and playing for a full season was the 100 he played in 2023, when he served as the DH 51 times. He’ll be expected to take the majority of starts in 2026, though his backups will determine how much rest he can really get.

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