Remember when you were little, and your biggest fear while playing backyard baseball was hitting a neighbor’s window or a car passing by?
Well, it apparently happens in MLB also, or at least, in spring training complexes.
Except that Manny Machado, the San Diego Padres‘ star third baseman, isn’t too worried about replacing someone’s window after hitting it with a baseball.
“Manny Machado just hit a passing car way behind the outfield fence during batting practice in Peoria. Voit and others threw their arms in the air and were chanting his name,” Washington Post’s reporter Chelsea Janes tweeted on Wednesday.
Manny Machado just hit a passing car way behind the outfield fence during batting practice in Peoria. Voit and others threw their arms in the air and were chanting his name.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) March 30, 2022
It was just another spring training anecdote that steals a smile from us.
Machado, if you were asking, earns $30 million per season per the terms of his contract, so he will have no issues responding to any damages caused to vehicles while having a round of batting practice.
The Padres Need The Best Version Of Machado To Keep Up
After it was revealed that star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. has a broken wrist, the Padres need the best version of Machado to avoid falling too far down the standings in the NL West division.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants are the favorites, but if Tatis was healthy, the Padres had what it takes to fight with them.
Without their phenom, though, their offense will have Machado as its centerpiece, at least for the first two or three months of the season.
Last season, Machado was one of the few Padres who stepped up, with a solid .278/.347/.489 line, 28 home runs, and 106 RBI.
He even threw in 12 stolen bases for good measure.
This time, however, San Diego needs him to take it up a notch.
At least we know he is doing really, really well in batting practice.
