When it happened his outlook felt destroyed. Dodger fans were louder and more prominent looks into a much larger yet quieter group of frustrated people. The overwhelming and immediate response to Machado was his offseason would be trashed, his original asking price tanked and his image changed forever.
Perhaps he was the villain. Maybe he still is. Perhaps all Machado needed were the bright lights of Los Angeles to bring out something Baltimore could not. But the Padres looked past that.
They looked past the comments, the text messages that read “thanks” when other players offered the 26-year-old their congratulations.