What explains the Padres’ mo...

When word broke this weekend that the San Diego Padres and Manny Machado had agreed on an 11-year, $350 million extension to avoid opt-out drama, replace his existing contract, and keep the superstar third baseman in San Diego for the rest of his career, the reaction was reminiscent of the villain's tagline in every Scooby-Doo episode.

For a long time, that has been a baseball industry refrain, and each repeat makes the rest of the business appear like the baffled foils, wailing inevitably about those interfering youngsters. Even before the Machado agreement, other club owners were chastising Padres owner Peter Seidler, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, and Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton for their open ambition (and open wallets). MLB commissioner Rob Manfred praised the Padres earlier this month as only he can, saying they had "done a very, really outstanding job of capitalizing on their talent to increase their income," but he also expressed concern about their long-term viability.

"The issue becomes, 'How long can you keep doing that? 'What happens when you have to rebuild your house?'" According to Manfred, the Padres are anticipated to lose money in 2023.

Padres’ investment in Manny Machado has been a winner

At the heart of sports fandom is a pact: You, the fan, invest your time and emotions — and yes, your money. You pay the ever-escalating ticket prices. You pay for cable to watch your local team when everyone else you know has cut the cord. You pay for the $15 beers. You pay for the $134.99 replica jersey.

In return, the people behind the team — the front office, sure, but mostly the team owners — try to give you something worth rooting for, something worth spending discretionary income to enjoy. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

In theory, it’s a circular system: Fans hungry for a baseball franchise exist. A team owner supplies the upfront funds to create or relocate or rebrand a baseball team for said fan base. The fan base rallies around said team. The team owner then improves the state of their investment, thus making money, and reinvests it to acquire star players, win and in turn encourage even more fans to be even more interested in the team.

What the Padres win by doubling down

The Padres will not be caught taking half-measures. Prior to Seidler's assuming control of the franchise, they made their own big-contract misstep in signing Eric Hosmer, who simply wasn’t a great candidate in the first place. But the Padres have not been cowed into austerity by that, a la the Cincinnati Reds ownership group. Instead, they learned from it and focused their attention on the younger, more consistent, more superlative types of players who have proven useful as franchise anchors.

It’s getting more expensive, but it might also prove more rewarding in the long run. Since Machado took over at the hot corner, Preller and the team have added Juan Soto, Xander Bogaerts, Josh Hader, Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell. Several are set to play alongside Machado for at least five years. The team also brought up Fernando Tatis Jr. and — despite some, uh, sagas — secured his jaw-dropping talent for just about forever.

Padres fans have responded as you might expect. Despite the ubiquitous “small media market” label attached to the team, the Padres reel in a comparatively high percentage of potential viewers, scoring among MLB’s top five teams in local ratings in recent seasons. After ranking 18th in MLB in average attendance in 2018, they came in third and fifth the past two seasons, drawing more than 10,000 additional fans per 2022 game than the last iteration of the pre-Machado Padres did.