Tag Archives: Dan Lozano

Manny Machado Finalizing 11-Year, $350 Million Contract Extension with San Diego Padres

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Manny Machado is thisclose to a major (league) deal…

The 30-year-old Dominican American professional baseball player and star third baseman and the San Diego Padres are finalizing an 11-year, $350 million contract extension, according to ESPN.

Manny MachadoMachado said earlier this week he intended to opt out of the final five years (and $150 million) of his current contract with the Padres following the season after preliminary negotiations on an extension broke down.

While Machado had set a February 16 deadline to reach a new deal, conversations continued between Machado’s agent, Dan Lozano of MVP Sports, and Padres general manager A.J. Preller. The deal is expected to be official soon.

The franchise cornerstone of an ascendant franchise, Machado is coming off arguably the best season of his career, hitting .298/.366/.531 with 32 home runs and 102 RBIs. He finished second in National League MVP voting and led the Padres to the National League Championship Series, where they were ousted by the Philadelphia Phillies.

Machado’s arrival in San Diego in 2019 on a 10-year, $300 million deal signaled a new era for the Padres, who have yet to win a World Series in their 54-year history.

Shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. joined the Padres as a rookie during Machado’s first season in San Diego, and while the team struggled to a 70-92 finish, it thrived in the COVID 19-shortened 2020 season, got a significant boost with the acquisition of star outfielder Juan Soto last year and continued to spend this winter with the signing of shortstop Xander Bogaerts to an 11-year, $280 million contract.

The deal is the fourth-largest guarantee in the game’s history, behind those for Aaron Judge, Mike Trout and Mookie Betts.

Yordan Alvarez Signs Lucrative Six-Year Contract Extension with Houston Astros

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Yordan Alvarez isn’t leaving Houston anytime soon…

The 24-year-old professional baseball designated hitter and outfielder, a Cuban defector who hadn’t played in any professional games in the U.S. when he was acquired, has signed a six-year contract extension with the Houston Astros that runs through the 2028 season.

Yordan Alvarez“First, I want to give thanks to [owner] Jim [Crane] and [general manager] James [Click] to give me the opportunity to be here the next six years,” Alvarez said. “It just means a lot. I’ve put a lot of work into this and to see the fruits of the labor means a lot.”

In August 2016, the Astros completed a minor trade that sent relief pitcher Josh Fields to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the unproven Minor League Baseball slugger, and it turned out to be one of the best deals in Houston franchise history.

Alvarez, moved quickly through the Astros’ system, winning AL Rookie of the Year honors in 2019.

This year, he’s in the hunt for the AL Most Valuable Player Award and is a budding star, which is why the Astros wanted to make sure to keep him in a Houston uniform for years to come.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a source told MLB.com when the deal was first reported Friday that it is worth $115 million. Along with a $5 million signing bonus, Alvarez will receive $7 million next season, $10 million in 2024, $15 million in ’25 and $26 million each year from 2026-28.

That makes it the second-largest contract in club history, trailing only the five-year, $151 million extension Jose Altuve received in March 2018.

“Yordan is one of the most complete hitters in the game of baseball,” Click said. “His combination of plate discipline, approach, power to all fields and the ability to hit any pitch that is thrown to him make him an elite hitter at the plate. Early in his career, many talked about him as a designated hitter. But through his hard work and dedication, he has turned himself into a quality player in left field. Combined with his hitting, this makes him quite simply one of the best players in the game right now.”

Entering Monday, Alvarez was fourth in the MLB in OPS (1.105), while leading the Astros in many offensive categories, including batting average (.295), home runs (16) and RBIs (34).

He was named AL Player of the Week on Monday after hitting .565 (13-for-23) with four home runs and eight RBIs.

“He’s the best hitter I’ve ever played with,” Altuve said. “He’s amazing. He can hit the ball the other way; he hits triples, homers and he walks. What a good hitter. I’m happy about this deal. I know how hard he’s worked, and just to know we’re going to have Yordan for six more years, it means a lot.”

The Astros began talking about a possible extension with Alvarez in March and negotiations began in the middle of April, agent Dan Lozano said.

“I think the biggest part is the timing was right and we were able to come to an agreement,” Alvarez said.

After missing most of the 2020 season following a pair of knee surgeries, Alvarez hit .277 with 33 homers and 104 RBIs in his first full season in the big leagues last year. He was named the 2021 ALCS MVP, hitting .522 with a homer and six RBIs against the Red Sox.

While Alvarez has blossomed into an elite offensive player, he’s also made huge strides defensively after serving mostly as a designated hitter in his rookie season. He underwent surgeries on both knees that cost him most of the 2020 season, and he was determined to play more left field. He started only nine games in left in ’19, but he started 39 in left last year and has started 18 so far this season.

“He’s a big man, but he’s also faster than he gets credit for,” Click said. “He has the ability to chase balls down in the gaps. That’s the main thing I’ve seen for him out there. … It’s a testament to his work ethic, his dedication and his character that he’s worked himself into shape to play out there as much as he has.”

The press conference to announce the deal was attended by several of Alvarez’s teammates, including Altuve, Yuli Gurriel, Kyle Tucker, Michael Brantley, Jake Odorizzi and Aledmys Díaz. The show of support from his teammates has helped Alvarez make Houston his home for years to come.

“I feel very happy,” Alvarez said. “From the day I was called up, they gave me the opportunity and trusted in me. It felt like I was in the Majors for a while because of the trust they put in me.”

Fernando Tatis Jr. Agrees to 14-Year, $340 Million Contract Extension with San Diego Padres

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Fernando Tatis Jr. is a big deal… with a big deal…

The 22-year-old Dominican professional baseball shortstop, nicknamed “El Niño“, has agreed to a 14-year, $340 million contract extension with the San Diego Padres, securing one of the largest guarantees in American sports history and marrying himself to the team with which he quickly established himself as a star, according to ESPN.

Fernando Tatis Jr.

Tatis, the emerging face of baseball, will receive the third-biggest deal in baseball history — and do so at a far younger age than Mike Trout and Mookie Betts, both of whom signed their megadeals at 27.

The 6-foot-3, 217-pound Tatis, whose dazzling shortstop play is perhaps exceeded by his prowess at the plate, went to San Diego via trade and is now the player around whom the Padres will build a team equipped to win a championship.

Full of substance to back up his style, Tatis blitzed through the minor leagues after the Padres acquired him from the Chicago White Sox in a deal for aging starter James Shields. His talent in spring training was so apparent in 2019 that San Diego started him at shortstop on Opening Day, eschewing the standard play of sending supreme talents to the minor leagues to manipulate their service time and keep them under team control for an extra season.

The mutual admiration between the team and Tatis was clear enough that the Padres hoped it wouldn’t be a mistake. And with a deal that will lock him up for nearly a decade and a half, through his age-35 season, the Padres convinced Tatis that small-market San Diego is where he belongs.

Tatis wasn’t willing to relinquish control of that. He will receive a full no-trade clause, allowing him veto power over any potential deal. The $340 million marks the largest deal given to a player before he reaches arbitration — nearly $200 million more than Trout’s first contract extension. Trout’s second extension set a domestic sports record of $426.5 million guaranteed, and Betts’ $392 million deal is now followed by Tatis’ contract.

Tatis joins Manny Machado, who plays third base next to him, as Padres with $300 million-plus deals — and they join New York Yankees duo Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton as teammates with such gaudy contracts. Both Machado and Tatis are represented by agent Dan Lozano.

Machado’s agreement with San Diego before the 2019 season was a turning point for the organization, which has positioned itself as the greatest threat to the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who happen to play in the Padres’ division. San Diego blossomed during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, with Tatis playing a front-and-center role after a dynamic rookie season that ended because of injury.

Hitting leadoff, with his trademark dreadlocked hair flowing out of his batting helmet and a bat flip at the ready, Tatis was the best player in the game for the first half of the season, an unstoppable combination of raw talent, polish and excitement, the sort that is evident even to the casual fan.

His appearances in more commercials — for Major League Baseball and products he was selling — illustrated that Tatis might be different than other would-be stars. The sport, starving for someone with wide appeal, struck gold with Tatis, who was raised in the Dominican Republic by his father, longtime major league infielder Fernando Tatis, and his mother, Maria.

Tatis wasn’t a highly touted prospect when he signed with the White Sox as a 16-year-old. The athleticism, the explosiveness, all of the skills he now wields — they were simply tools back then. Maybe they would arrive, maybe they wouldn’t.

San Diego saw something different — a player who, in his first year after signing, grew, gained muscle, started looking the part. After the trade, he grew another inch, then another, and by the time Tatis was embarrassing Double-A pitchers, he looked the part of a future star.

To become that so quickly, not just finishing fourth in the MVP voting in 2020 but compelling a team to guarantee $340 million, speaks to the Padres’ commitment to Tatis. They could have kept him for four more seasons before he reached free agency. Instead, after he hit .277/.366/.571 with 17 home runs and 45 RBIs in 59 games, they gave Tatis more than any free agent ever has received.

Talks between the sides picked up early this week, and sources familiar with the discussions expected a deal to get done. One of this size? One of this magnitude? Well, when Tatis does something, he tends to do it big.