This Manny Machado stat will have Padres fans celebrating

One Manny Machado stat will have Padres fans excited about his potential in 2021.

The San Diego Padres have an absolutely stacked roster. Signing Manny Machado back in 2019 proved the team was ready to compete.

The star infielder is off to a nice start in 2021 with an .876 OPS through 17 games. MLB also shared another impressive stat on Twitter that should have Padres fans excited about Machado’s continued dominance in 2021.

Manny Machado continues to tear the cover off the ball

So what is a hard-hit rate? MLB defines it as the rate at which a player has an exit velocity of at least 95 miles per hour on batted balls. That means Machado is hitting the ball with such a high exit velocity over two-thirds of the time.

This percentage dates back to the start of the 2020 season and any list where someone shows up in front of Mike Trout is an impressive feat. Baseball fans should also not ignore Juan Soto’s name on the list a few spots behind Machado. He is a mega-star in the making.

Machado joins Fernando Tatis Jr. as a face of the franchise out in San Diego. Routinely hitting the ball so hard sets him up for success and explains why he won a Silver Slugger Award in 2020. Surprisingly, that was the first of his career.

Machado and the Padres are one of the best teams in baseball and the test in 2021 will be trying to get past the Los Angeles Dodgers not only in the division, but in the entire National League. Having multiple stars in the middle of the lineup bodes well for San Diego.

Now it will be up to others in the lineup to start mashing the ball like Machado. Putting the ball in play is one thing. Doing so with a high exit velocity increases the chances of good things happening.