Padres Manager Craig Stammen Walks Back Comments on Manny Machado

As the San Diego Padres move forward with the 2026 season, the ultimate goal of this team is to make the playoffs and win the World Series. This has been a consistent message from the organization in each of the last few years, and the team has put plans in place to at least attempt to make it happen.

One plan has been to prioritize rest throughout the long season for some of the older stars on the team. A lot of this has been placed on the shoulders of first-year manager Craig Stammen, who is learning on the fly with the team.

But Stammen did say during spring training that the team would make sure to give days off to older guys, such as star infielder Manny Machado.

Machado is now 33 years old, and for him to be effective for the entire season, the Padres want to make sure he isn't being run down.

Before the season started, Stammen said that Machado wasn't a "spring chicken" anymore, and that he would give him more rest.

“He’s no spring chicken anymore,” Stammen said. “And we want the best for him. He wants the best for himself, wants the best for the team. We can make good decisions that way, with that in mind.”

However, Stammen has now seemed to reverse that thought. The Padres manager still plans to give Machado days off, but his messages don't add up.

“Gotta get our third baseman a few days,” Stammen said. “He’s getting a little older. He’s still a spring chicken, but I think these days, hopefully, add up in August, September, and we get the same Manny we get the whole season.”

Machado is arguably the second most important player to the Padres, other than Fernando Tatis Jr., so making sure he is healthy is paramount. But Machado is a competitor through and through, and earlier in the year, he did push back on the rest idea.

“I’ll rest when I’m in the ground,” Machado said in the spring.

As he has gotten older, Machado has remained strong at the plate, so the Padres can't afford for him to miss any significant time.

Machado hit 27 home runs last season for San Diego while driving in 95 runs, proving his worth again. But he also is under contract through the 2033 season — making $39 million in most seasons — so the Padres need him to produce for the deal to not become a real problem.

Going forward, it does seem like it will be a "battle" between Stammen and Machado for rest days, but the Padres may want to save the veteran from himself at times. So far this season, Machado has hit .196 with two home runs, seven runs batted in and an OPS of .736 across 14 games.