Padres Must Trust That Manny Machado Will Right His Wrongs From Bizarre 2026 Season

For as much as anyone wants to criticize the season Manny Machado had for the San Diego Padres this season, there are three things you could count on the superstar third baseman for in 2026: being in the lineup every day. home runs, and tremendous defense.

There is a fourth that also needs to be included, but it has nothing to do with statistics. The seven-time All-Star is the unquestioned leader of this group. Sure, you can count Fernando Tatis Jr. as a big part of what makes the Padres tick, but it is Machado's presence that helps give the Friars their daily bearings and edge. Just look at the role he played when he stood up at a team dinner in his hometown of Miami in late July and implored his teammates to step up in the remainder of the season, which is exactly what they did.

As far as what he did on the field, Machado hit 30 homers, the fourth time in eight seasons as a Padre he has reached that mark (make it seven if you take away the pandemic-shortened 2020), to reach 399 for his career, the 62nd player in MLB history to hit that many. His four 30-homer campaigns as a Friar tied Adrian Gonzalez for the most in club history and gave him eight in his career, the third active player to do that (Nolan Arenado and Kyle Schwarber). He also hit some round-number career milestones with his 1,200th RBI, 400th double and 2,000th game. Machado also moved past Garry Templeton (1,135) for second in Padres history in career hits.

Machado was only out of the lineup four times, continuing a trend of always being available. Putting aside the 2023 season in which he sustained a fractured hand and played in 138 of 162 games, Machado has only missed 44 other games for the Padres, with his 159 games last year and 158 this year his highest totals in the brown and gold and most since playing all 162 in 2018.

Always known as a very good defender, Machado's play slipped in 2025, but rebounded with a force this year. Machado led the NL third basemen with 16 errors last year, but committed just three in 2026 as he led the hot corner with an MLB-best .990 fielding percentage. Two of those errors came within the Friars' first 26 games of the season, which gave way to a stretch of 62 games without an error before finishing with 63 errorless games.

He also led all third baseman with +12 Outs Above Average. His range was in the 96th percentile after being in the eighth in 2025 and 40th in 2024. He also has a remarkable accuracy with his throws.

As for what he didn't do well, that showed up in his ability to simply get hits, not that hitting a baseball is easy. For the first time since his rookie season, Machado was considered a below-average hitter. That is based on OPS+, where he had a mark of 97 this season (100 is average). That is as a result of his slash line of .217/.303/.407.

That .217 batting average sticks out like a sore thumb on Machado's ledger. His previous low-water mark was .256 in 2019, his first season with the Padres. Even that year, Machado finished with a 110 OPS+. He struck a career-worst 144 times this year, but did draw a career-best 76 walks. He also had 22 doubles after reaching 30 in four of the previous five years. And he hit into an NL-worst 22 double plays, tied with Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a category he has led MLB in twice with the Padres (but not this year, as that title went to Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays with 26).

All of this is to say... what exactly? Chalk this season from a batting average perspective as a one-off. He showed up in the postseason, going 7-for-20 with a pair doubles and a homer (nearly another in his final at-bat), including 4-for-13 vs. the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Division Series.

Just like he did for this season on defense, Machado will figure out what went wrong at the plate and have it sorted out in 2027.

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