A deep dive into Manny Machado’s mechanical shifts
Credit: (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Four weeks into the 2026 MLB season, San Diego Padres star Manny Machado is having a very interesting season offensively.
Through April 21st, Machado currently has a .607 OPS with only two home runs through his first 93 plate appearances. On the flip side, the Padres third baseman has a career high 18.5 walk-rate that has seen him play a big part of some rallies for the team. There seems to be a combination of mechanical tinkering mixed with mental maturation for the Dominican star as he tries to figure it out at the plate. If the physical part of hitting can match up with the growth mentally he seems to be making, there is evidence to suggest that he can break out of this early season slump. This, however, will take some unlearning of some new habits that I’ll outline below.
Machado is standing deeper in the box
It is unknown what brought upon this change but in 2026, per Baseball Savant, Machado is standing about four inches deeper in the box compared to 2025. The last two full seasons, Machado’s depth in box (where he stands in the box in relation to the front of the plate) has averaged out to 24.6 inches. In 2026 that number is 28.2. In theory, this change would give him a little extra time as the ball comes to the plate since he’s deeper in the box and further away from the pitcher.
Where this change seems to be hindering him is where he is hitting the ball. In those prior two seasons, Machado’s intercept point (where his bat meets the ball on contact and swings and misses) was 30.9 inches from the center of mass. In 2026 that number is 26.8 inches. While this change in where he stands should give him more time to hit, Machado is hitting the ball deeper in a similar way to Fernando Tatis Jr. and his results are suffering for it. Of the seven full time Padres hitters, only Xander Bogaerts and Ramon Laureano’s intercept point are in an optimal spot in conjunction with their center of mass. It is not a surprise that those two have been the best two Padres hitters this year.
Mechanical Changes
Eagle eyed Padres fans may know that Machado has a tendency to tinker a bit at the plate. By all accounts, the all-star third baseman is a classic hitter who trusts his process and wants to hit the ball line to line and drive in runs. Many seasons for Manny Machado look very similar. He comes out the gate decent before struggling in May and June is where he begins to heat up and scorches Earth through the summer. The end of the year sees it all average out to pretty much match the back of his baseball card. A very consistent player. What is not as known is the way he tends to tinker in the process while he finds “it”. About once a year, you’ll probably find Machado using teammate Fernando Tatis Jr’s bat for about a week or so. The other way you’ll see him tinker is with his hands. Machado tends to alternate between two stances.
One where he starts with his hands low by his chest and the bat is more vertical:
9/17/25
And one where his hands are higher and his bat is more horizontal:
7/11/25
Both of those at bats resulted in home runs in 2025. What Machado has done in 2026 is more of the horizontal example and it may be leading to his early season struggles. His best game of the season was undoubtedly the rubber game against the Red Sox on April 5th where he went 2-4 with a three-run home run. In that game, the Padres star tweaked his stance for the first time and his bat was more vertical. This tweak led to a quieter load in his stance and he was able to pull a ball several inches off the plate, over the Green Monster.
Machado over The Monster to give San Diego the lead! pic.twitter.com/fYSuEL51xu
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 5, 2026
That week starting from the last Red Sox game through the Rockies series from April 5th-12th saw him collect six of his season’s thirteen hits. His last three hits came against the Mariners and the Angels on April 16-17 with an even more extreme tweak to the hands resembling the first photo from last season. Since then, Machado’s hands have been reverting back to a more horizontal position and he’s been hitless since.
Swing Metrics
The timing aspect of these changes seems to be huge for Machado as much of his contact is weak compared to his career. His bat speed has gone down 1.4 MPH which is significant but far from a terrible swing speed as it still grades out above average. Machado’s attack angle (the vertical direction that the sweet spot of the bat is traveling at the moment it hits the baseball) has gone down from eight degrees to four and his ideal attack angle percentage has gone down from 54.6% to 42.6%.
In layman’s terms, he is attacking the ball the way he should less than half the time. His attack direction (the horizontal inverse of attack direction) has seen his swing go from zero degrees (hits up the middle) the last two years to four degrees opposite field. These swing metrics are leading to many groundballs as his launch angle has also lowered to 8.1 degrees. His career launch angle is 14 degrees and was 14.3 last year. This is a huge indicator to why his slugging percentage is under .300 and he only has four extra base hits.
It’s fair to assume that at some point, this will all get figured and sorted out. Manny Machado is on a hall of fame trajectory and part of that is the ability to adjust and get back to what he does best. The phrase “as Manny goes, the team goes” gets thrown around very often, luckily, the Padres have managed to tie for the league’s best record through the team’s first 23 games without much production from their third baseman.
The team has managed to win without much production from all of their stars. Machado’s propensity to walk in the 96th percentile of the league is a huge new tool he’s added to his toolbox. What he and the team need, is for him to also get back to the tools that have gotten him to this point. Once he figures it out, the ceiling for the Padres will likely go as high as he does.
30
East Coast Based
Dominican