Manny Machado agreed to a 10-year, $300 million deal with the San Diego Padres. The White Sox finished runner up, offering the star free agent an eight-year contract, worth $250 million guaranteed. Not only was Chicago’s offer $50 million less guaranteed, but they didn’t even offer Machado an opt-out clause, which is standard practice in these huge deals.
Yet, both Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn expressed great disappointment after the news of Machado’s agreement with the Padres broke on Tuesday, but the saddest thing about their reaction is the following. The White Sox genuinely believed they had the best offer. That wasn’t just lip service from Williams and Hahn. They honestly thought they had the best deal for Machado and the truth is at the end they were never even close.
No opt-out clause AND $50 million less guaranteed? They were never close after the Padres made their intentions obvious.
Hahn had a great interview on 670 The Score Wednesday night and credit to Laurence Holmes for asking the questions and getting answers fans wanted. Hahn described a meeting with Machado’s agent on Monday afternoon and how it was made fairly evident what Machado was seeking without the agent directly providing specific figures.
Yet, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Machado was holding out for a $300 million deal all offseason.
Hahn has praised owner Jerry Reinsdorf for stepping up late in the process, but ultimately the White Sox simply didn’t go all in for Machado. The guaranteed contract stayed at eight years for $250 million, while two vesting options were then added, making the deal worth $320 million over 10 years.
Nothing sums up what happened better than this thought.
Bottom line: The #WhiteSox wanted Manny Machado on their own terms. The Padres simply wanted Manny Machado. It’s no surprise which strategy worked out.
— Owen Schoenfeld (@The_Xsport) February 20, 2019
At this point how can any White Sox fan trust the team will ever have the best offer at the table when their best effort to date was offering less money and a chance to play with a few of his close buds.
At the end of the day, the White Sox simply didn’t think Machado was worth it.
On with @LaurenceWHolmes, Rick Hahn explains White Sox 'weren't comfortable' offering $300 million to Manny Machado, stresses organization isn't opposed to opt-outs in contract offers and adds line of communication is still open to Bryce Harper's camphttps://t.co/GoVZqe0NG7 pic.twitter.com/6L2Ej52VNA
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) February 21, 2019
We try to dissect what was the miserable failure of not signing Manny Machado by the White Sox on this week’s episode of the Pinwheels and Ivy Podcast.
