Padres News: Manny Machado Feels Friars Grew a Lot Mentally in 2022

Machado believes Padres are ready for an even bigger 2023 season.

The San Diego Padres are heading into one of their biggest seasons in franchise history and there will be many storylines following them. Their executives were not scared to spend money this offseason to ensure the roster was filled from top to bottom with experience, talent, and leadership. The Friars established themselves as a squad to be taken seriously last year, and went and got even better this offseason.

Being just three games away from a berth to the World Series is no easy task and San Diego was able to do so last year without the help of star Fernando Tatis Jr. The season was a rollercoaster as they barely even snuck into the playoffs with a wild card win, and then went on to upset a Dodgers team that won a franchise record 111 games.

Padres star infielder Manny Machado spoke with the media at Spring Training and elaborated on how the team played through all the noise that came their way in 2022.

The Padres are going to receive a ton of attention this season.

I asked Manny Machado about the biggest key as to how the team will deal with that outside noise. pic.twitter.com/fA3txtZyGb

— Sammy Levitt (@SammyLev) February 20, 2023

"I think we learned a lot last year from everything we dealt with," said Machado. "Good thing we have a lot of veterans on the squad this year and I think we're going to handle everything pretty well and professional."

Machado still speaking highly of his team despite contract disputes with the front office is a good sign for Padres fans. He is focused on the games that are kicking off very soon and is excited to play with new guys such as Xander Bogaerts and Michael Wacha.

The 2022 NL MVP finalist also double-downed on the fact that his lone priority is winning games.

"You guys always make it seem like it's hard, I mean it's easy," said Machado. "I mean it's easy, it's about playing baseball, it's about winning games.”

The Padres’ outcome this year will definitely play a big role in Machado's future with the team after this season.