Photo: Marty Caswell
On Saturday afternoon, the Padres held a press conference to announce the seven-year, $80 million dollar extension for infielder Jake Cronenworth.
Several of his teammates were present, including Juan Soto, Josh Hader, Austin Nola, Trent Grisham, Nelson Cruz and of course Manny Machado, who spoke about why Cronenworth was so deserving and what it means to have another core player locked up.
"I know who he is and I know what he's about, no one deserves it more than that kid. Man, he works his butt off and does everything the right way and you know no matter what, he's going to be excellent always, so I'm so happy for him."
It didn't take long for Cronenworth, whom the Padres acquired from the Tampa Rays in 2019 along with Tommy Pham, to show he was much more than a "throw-in" player, a notion Machado scoffed at.
"I don't think we ever took him that way here. As soon as he came here we saw, we were like 'damn this is the guy we got?' Those guys effed up!"
photo: Marty Caswell