The vast majority of people who want to become established stars in MLB fail.
Most of them don’t even reach the league, while others do it but can’t quite stay up long enough.
Others are able to carve themselves a nice career with some good earnings.
And, of course, there is a minimal percentage of baseball players who actually become very, very rich.
This is the case of San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado.
In the majors, talent pays: the best of the best are very well remunerated.
Machado is a star with the glove and the bat.
He is as likely to win the Gold Glove as he is to win the Silver Slugger award or compete for the MVP.
As a result, he has gotten two incredibly large deals.
Manny Machado is the first athlete in pro sports history to sign two contracts worth more than $300 million 💰 pic.twitter.com/qxBQuX5ivW
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) February 26, 2023
He is the first in professional sports history, not just MLB, to score two $300 million deals.
That’s not too shabby.
In early 2019, Machado signed a 10-year, $300 million deal with the Padres.
That contract had an opt out clause after the fifth year, which would have been 2023.
After earning $120 million in 2019-2022 (a bit less than that since 2020 earnings were prorated to 60 games played), Machado leveraged his opt out to score another long-term contract.
Over the weekend, he signed an 11-year, $350 million extension with a $45 million signing bonus and a no-trade clause.
There are no more opt outs, though.
Starting from this year, Machado will earn a little over $31.8 million per season for the next 11 years.
He has the talent and athleticism to remain effective for most of the deal, and by the time he (potentially) becomes a liability on the field, inflation would make his salary a bit more palatable.
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Xander Bogaerts Discusses Getting Acclimated With His New Team
