Manny Machado is putting together a resume that is tracking towards Cooperstown. Where does he stand?

When the Padres first signed Manny Machado to what at the time was the largest free agent contract in North American sports in February 2019, they envisioned a scenario where they were signing a Hall of Fame-caliber player. Now that Machado finished his sixth season with the Padres, that is starting to become more and more a reality.

Let’s dive into Machado’s overall resume and where he might need to add to it to be enshrined in Cooperstown one day.

Machado has been consistently one of the best third basemen in baseball over the past decade. He finished the 2024 season as the Padres’ all-time home run leader. That is one feather in the cap for his Hall of Fame resume. It never hurts to be a franchise’s all-time homer king.

The Miami native is a six-time All-Star. Only 18 full-time third basemen have been selected to more All-Star Games in their career (11 of those are Hall of Famers). Machado has more All-Star selections than newly inducted Hall of Famer Adrian Beltré.

It seems like seven All-Star appearances is the magic number. Hall of Famers Paul Molitor, Scott Rolen, and Edgar Martinez all reached enshrinement with seven selections. Machado needs just one more for the rest of his career. Given he can still play at a high level, that is not far-fetched.

Following the 2024 season, Machado also earned his second career Silver Slugger Award. Both awards have come since he joined San Diego. Only 22 players in MLB history have earned multiple Silver Slugger Awards at third base. He has as many Silver Sluggers as first-ballot Hall of Famer Chipper Jones.

While Machado has never won Most Valuable Player, he has been a serious contender for the award in multiple seasons. He finished runner-up to the NL MVP award in 2022 (6.7 WAR, 32 HR, 102 RBI, .298 AVG, .898 OPS). In fact, he has finished in the top five for MVP voting four different times. Only three third basemen in MLB history have achieved that more- legendary Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and, Brooks Robinson and Jose Ramirez. Machado has as many top-five MVP finishes as George Brett and Nolan Arenado and more than Chipper Jones, Adrian Beltré, Eddie Mathews, Ron Santo, and Paul Molitor.

Despite a rocky 2024 season by his standards, he still garnered back-ballot MVP votes, finishing 16th. That marked the seventh different season in Machado’s career, where he garnered at least one MVP vote.

When most people think of Machado, they think of his silky-smooth fielding skills. The way he fields his position calls to mind milk and honey. Somehow, Machado only has two Gold Glove Awards and none since 2015. However, he also has a Platinum Glove to his name from 2013. The Platinum Glove is given by fan voting among all Gold Glove winners, with one AL and NL winner.

Of the 206 third basemen to log at least 1,000 innings at the hot corner since 2003, Machado is fifth in Defensive Runs Saved. Among the 35 third basemen to log at least 12,000 innings since 1900, Machado is fourth all-time in fielding percentage (.969). It’s hard to argue against Machado being considered one of the top 10 defensive third basemen of all time.

Many evaluate a Hall of Fame resume by WAR. Machado currently sits at 57.8 WAR (Baseball Reference/bWAR). That ranks 20th all-time among full-time third basemen. According to Baseball Reference’s JAWS metric, the average Hall of Fame third baseman earns 69.4 WAR. That leaves Machado about 12 WAR short. However, that means if Machado can muster around the same WAR he had in 2024 for what some considered a “down” year for him, at 3.1, he would exceed that after four more seasons. He is currently under contract for the next nine seasons. If Machado stays reasonably healthy, he should blow past that 69.4 mark.

Scott Rolen recently heard his name called on his sixth try with 70.1 WAR. Getting past Rolen should be Machado’s goal to feel safe about induction.

Speaking of Rolen, let’s take a look at a side-by-side comparison of him and Machado. These comparisons are from Baseball Reference’s Stathead database.

Machado is approaching Rolen in several categories and already has more home runs. He is 177 hits away from tying Rolen despite playing in 303 fewer games. Machado is two or three good seasons away from passing Rolen in several categories.

Many compare Machado to another current all-world third baseman destined for Cooperstown- Nolan Arenado. Yes, Arenado has racked up the Gold Glove Awards. However, when looking at the statistics that don’t involve voting, in which case Arenado seems to have gained personal favor with some voters, Machado stands up well.

While Arenado edges Machado in the awards categories, Machado has Arenado beat in several statistics currently. These two are commonly lumped together for comparisons over their entire careers. Both may end up in Cooperstown one day.

Baseball Reference’s JAWS metric is described as “(Jaffe WAR Score system) was developed by sabermetrician Jay Jaffe as a means to measure a player’s Hall of Fame worthiness. A player’s JAWS is their career WAR averaged with their 7-year peak WAR. Note that only batting or pitching WAR are used to determine the averages at a given position. The current Hall of Famers are then grouped by position, and a position average JAWS is computed.”

In that metric, Machado ranks 20th among third basemen at 50.1. The average Hall of Fame third baseman is 56.3, with 17 enshrined. Machado is right on the cusp.

If WAR isn’t everyone’s favorite way to decide Hall of Fame-worthy players, it’s likely the signature career milestones like 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. Aside from those clouded in steroid allegations, getting to one or both of those benchmarks is basically an automatic ticket to enshrinement.

Machado owns the title for most homers by any active third baseman at 342. That leaves him 158 home runs shy of the magic number. Over the last three seasons, Machado has averaged 30 homers. He needs to do that for five more seasons to reach 500 in that time. If we extend the timeframe out to the nine remaining years on his contract in San Diego, he would need to average just 17.5 homers per season to get there.

Given his natural power and skillset that should age well, that’s not entirely impossible.

Three thousand hits seem even more attainable. He needs just 1,100 more hits to get there, and he needs to average 122 hits per season for the duration of his remaining contract. Since 2021, Machado has averaged 158 hits per season. He would reach the mountaintop of 3,000 hits in just seven seasons if he keeps that pace.

Both of those milestones are entirely possible under his current contract, so long as he stays healthy.

If he were to reach one, or certainly both, of those marks, you will see Machado’s plaque in Cooperstown very soon.

Even if Machado falls short of those two big milestones, his chances at enshrinement are not zero. Many incredible Hall of Fame hitters never reached those career marks. Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff, Jeff Bagwell, Todd Helton, and Vlad Guerrero are all recent inductees who never reached 500 homers or 3,000 hits.

If Machado can nab at least one more All-Star selection and play at least four more seasons at the level he did in 2024, he should hear his name called into immortality someday.

Nick Lee

Native of Escondido, CA. Lived in San Diego area for 20 years. Padres fan since childhood (mid-90s). I have been writing since 2014. I currently live near Seattle, WA and am married to a Seattle sports girl. I wore #19 on my high school baseball team for Tony Gwynn. I am a stats and sports history nerd. I attended BYU on the Idaho campus. I also love Star Wars.