SURPRISE, ARIZ. — Let’s discuss the “free agent is broken” narrative and the “one-third of the teams are tanking” canard. Just one day after players association chief Tony Clark wickedly called out teams for not trying to justify the cost of a ticket, a low-revenue team without a winning team in six years under its current ownership just spent $300 million on a guy called out as a dirty player and who projects as Ryan Zimmerman with a better glove.
By signing Manny Machado, the San Diego Padres have invested $527 million in Wil Myers, Eric Hosmer and Machado, the last two of which have been signed in February.