Advertisement

Manny Machado injury update is great news for Padres fans heading into 2024

Manny Machado appears to be very close to being ready to roll for the 2024 season.
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Friars On Base

2024 San Diego Padres Spring Training / Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/GettyImages

One of the elephants in the room for the San Diego Padres this spring is Manny Machado's health and just how available he's going to be during the early part of the 2024 season. Machado had surgery to treat a bad case of tennis elbow this offseason and there has been a good bit of uncertainty as to when he is going to be able to take the field this year.

Most of the updates on Machado thus far had been cautiously optimistic. Machado talked about feeling good and taking things day by day while the Padres have said he's hit all of the rehab benchmarks, while making sure to note that they're taking their time with him. All good news, but that still did not provide much in the way of clarity.

Well, Machado did play in a spring training game this past weekend and promptly hit a ground rule double. That in itself was great news, but when asked after the game how he was feeling, he responded that his elbow "feels so much better than it did last year."

Padres star Manny Machado is already ahead of where he was in 2023

Given that the Padres gave Machado a massive $350 million extension before the start of the 2023 season, the most important thing is that he's on the road to being healthy again. While we don't know for certain if he will be in the field on Opening Day just yet, the fact he was that vocal in proclaiming how much better his arm felt bodes well for his long-term health and availability.

Machado performing well early in camp and feeling good is a great sign for his short-term availability as well. There's certainly a chance San Diego will remain cautious and keep him from playing the defensive side of the ball for a while, but the Padres can absorb the defensive loss given the number of infielders they have.

Assuming he has no setbacks, Padres fans should be feeling pretty good about Machado's chances of being in the lineup on Opening Day. Whether or not his arm will be ready by Opening Day to make those long throws from third on a regular basis is something we won't know until he starts seeing some time in the field this spring, but for now, we'll take the good news here.

More Padres News from Friars on Base

Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.