The San Diego Padres have more or less fallen off a cliff in recent weeks, currently sitting at 34-32 after a recent home loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The Padres have seen some brutal play out of Manny Machado this year, who has not come close to living up to the massive amount of money he is being paid.
Recently, Padres manager Craig Stammen got 100 percent honest on why he continues to trust Machado in big moments this year despite his continued struggles.
“I’ll put Manny in those situations tomorrow, the next day, the day after that, the day after that, the rest of the season,” he said, per Marty Caswell of Foul Territory on X, formerly Twitter.
Machado has proven to be a reliable hitter throughout his career, but at this point, it’s unclear if his struggles in 2026 are simply a blip on the radar or signs of a major falloff that won’t be reversible.
The 33 year-old is hitting just .171 so far this year, with 11 home runs and 40 hits overall, along with a -0.5 WAR, not close to the kind of production the team is relying on out of him.
Meanwhile, the Padres as a whole have fallen off significantly this year to their current record just two games above the .500 mark. San Diego at one point was battling with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the NL West, but now, they find themselves tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks 8.5 games behind the two-time reigning World Series champions in the divisional race, with the season already approaching its halfway mark.
San Diego can ill afford to have Machado’s struggle at this rate for much longer.
In any case, the Padres will next take the field on Wednesday for another game against the Reds.
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