Machado on Tuesday morning agreed to a 10-year, $300-million deal with the Padres, according to reports, and White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams confirmed shortly after that his team didn't reach that financial threshold in base salary.
"We could not go that $300-million level," Williams said, explaining the organization needed to focus on the "total winning roster," according to Sun-Times reporter Daryl Van Schouwen.
Interestingly and somewhat mysteriously, Williams and general manager Rick Hahn both later suggested that the White Sox's offer had the potential to top the Padres' $300 million. They didn't offer specifics, but multiple reports later did.
The White Sox offered an eight-year, $250-million deal worth north of $300 million with incentives and vesting options, to Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. Those options were for $35 million in 2027 and 2028, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, and they would vest if he had 550 plate appearances in the previous season. That could've turned the White Sox's contract offer into a 10-year, $320-million deal, Nightengale reported.
"Still in a little bit of disbelief," Williams told reporters. "The one thing that I can say and say -- and just told Rick not long ago and I will tell Jerry (Reinsdorf) and our coaching staff and our players -- I feel like we put our best foot forward, and Jerry in particular really, really stepped up. If the offer that I'm seeing reported or the acceptance of the offer that I'm seeing is true, then actually our offer had the opportunity for Manny to surpass that. But in the end, we went after the guy and obviously we didn't get him. Disappointed. But hey, the reason we were going after him in the first place is because we feel we are positioned to do some good things here moving forward. We wanted to accelerate that to a large degree. That's why we made the overture that we did. We'll keep the train rolling."
The White Sox had continued their conversation with Machado's camp as recently as Monday afternoon. Williams learned of the Machado news via Twitter and expressed shock when meeting with the media.
"We stepped up to where this morning, I honestly believed we had the best offer on the table," Williams said.
Machado is a four-time All-Star who has career marks of a .282 batting average, .335 on-base percentage, .487 slugging percentage and .822 OPS.
Machado hit .297 with 37 home runs and 107 RBIs last season -- all career-best marks -- while playing for both the Orioles and the Dodgers. He played 147 games at shortstop last season, though he primarily played third base in the first five full seasons of his career. Machado won a Gold Glove at third base in 2013 and 2015.