Manny Machado fires back at Padres media with receipts from early-season criticism

Manny Machado made sure to let the media know that he’s heard all of it. He heard, and read, the questions about his swing. He knew every ugly Padres offensive statistic was being repeated on television, radio, news outlets and social media. Machado doesn’t need to be briefed on what everyone was saying when he was hovering around the Mendoza Line and the lineup looked hopeless.

So when a reporter asked Machado what had started clicking, he wasn’t interested in handing over a neat explanation for the Padres’ turnaround. With classic Machado cheekiness, he sent the question right back across the microphones.

Machado commented on the reporters writing “negatively” about the team all season. He wanted to know what they thought had changed. It wasn’t an answer, it was a receipt.

Manny Machado did not forget how Padres media covered the ugly months

Let’s get something straight: The early criticism was deserved. The Padres spent a large part of two-and-a-half months producing the worst offense in baseball. Machado was struggling, the stars were not carrying the lineup and too many games felt finished as soon as the Friars fell behind. When an expensive roster performs that poorly, the media has every right to say so. Nobody needs to apologize for accurately describing bad baseball.

However, accountability can travel in both directions. Machado stood in front of the microphones when his batting average was ugly. He answered questions while people dissected his stance, his timing, his age, contract or whatever else they could possibly dig up. Now that he looks dangerous again and the Padres’ offense has dragged itself off the floor, reporters should be able to handle a little return fire.

Machado didn’t demand that anyone erase the first half. He simply made it clear that he remembers how quickly the conversation turned.

That actually made the exchange work. Machado didn’t rant, he didn’t name names or manufacture a personal feud. He did something more effective: He made the people asking the questions sit with the questions they had been asking for months.

The numbers now give him room to do that. The Padres have performed like a top-five offense since around the middle of June. Machado punctuated the sweep of the Miami Marlins with an RBI double and a game-tying two-run homer in the eighth inning before Jackson Merrill delivered the go-ahead shot.

“Listen, it’s a long season,” Machado said afterward. “We’ve had our ups and downs.”

You sure have. It sounds diplomatic on paper. Watch him deliver the larger message, though, and there’s no mistaking the motive behind it.

Devine Sports Gospel certainly noticed. The local Padres outlet responded, “Manny Machado DEFINITELY doesn’t like the DSG.” 

We can’t prove Machado was aiming directly at DSG, and he didn’t need to be. If multiple people heard his answer and wondered whether he was talking about them, the point landed exactly where it was supposed to.

Machado has always been better when he’s a bit peeved. Some mistake it as arrogance. Padres fans didn’t embrace him because he smiles through every question and gives polished corporate answers. That’s boring anyway. Many embraced him because he plays with pride, remembers disrespect and rarely pretends not to care.

That personality can occasionally rub people the wrong way. So what? This isn’t a congeniality contest. Can he drive baseballs into the seats and play like the cornerstone who is supposed to pull this team through its worst stretches? If so, we can move on. 

They also need his approach to the trade deadline. Machado made it clear that the players are focused on winning games instead of wondering what A.J. Preller is going to do. That’s exactly where their attention belongs.

None of this erases that awful stretch. But it does change the direction of the season. The receipts only remain valuable if Machado and the Padres continue producing. If the offense disappears again, the uncomfortable questions will return, and they should. That’s the deal when expectations and payroll are this high.

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