Los Angeles Dodgers: The Padres are now the biggest competition

The San Diego Padres just signed Manny Machado to a 10-year contract and the Los Angeles Dodgers now have their biggest competition for the next decade.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have dominated the National League West this decade, winning the division six years in a row to hold the longest active postseason streak in baseball and the third-longest postseason streak of all-time.

Some of those years have been close in the standings, others have been complete runaways. Heck, in 2014, the second place team from the NL West, the San Francisco Giants, even won the World Series.

The Giants are probably the more successful NL West team of the decade because of their three World Series wins, but that is beside the point. The Dodgers have battled it out in the standings with all of the NL West teams.

That is, except for the San Diego Padres. That is going to change in the coming years.

Jeff Passan of ESPN was the first to report that Manny Machado has finally agreed to a contract this offseason. That contract is a 10-year, $300 million contract with the San Diego Padres that has an opt-out after the fifth season.

The biggest thing on everyone’s mind is now where Bryce Harper will sign. The two were seemingly having a chicken match with who would sign first. Machado lost and Harper will likely sign a similar deal that is for slightly more money.

However, for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the focus should be on Manny Machado. The team is losing him after half a season in LA, which really should not hurt all that much. Nobody really expected Machado to re-sign, anyways.

The Dodgers should be concerned with Machado as it might be the final stamp on a San Diego Padres team that is ready to contend.

They might not be bonafide contenders in 2019 but they are already much better than they were. With an extremely deep farm system, though, the Padres are primed to be the Dodgers biggest competition in the NL West for at least the next five years.

Of course, the prospects do have to pan out for it to actually make a difference but there is a very good chance that they will. The Padres have 10 prospects in MLB Pipeline’s top-100 list, some of which are very notable.

Shortstop prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. is the second-best prospect in baseball and arguably is big league ready, but might start the year in the minor leagues. With Machado potentially at short and new signing Ian Kinsler at second or third, Tatis has time.

Luis Urias (23rd overall) is another middle infield prospect that is affected by this signing. It is unclear what the Padres’ plan is and whether or not they want to call Urias up right away to play second base.

Both Urias and Tatis are elite prospects but Urias is more natural at second and has more games at the AAA level. However, with this signing, the Padres can now even afford to trade Urias to a team like the Cleveland Indians to get Corey Kluber, or any other elite arm that can help the pitching staff.

The Padres also have the second-best left-handed pitching prospect in MacKenzie Gore and the second-best catching prospect in Francisco Mejia. Gore is still 2-3 years away from the big leagues but Mejia could see significant playing time this season.

Throw these guys on top of a big league team that now consists of Machado, Eric Hosmer, Wil Myers and already established young guys and the Padres have the recipe for success for years to come.

The team can either bank on the farm system living up to expectations and being a new version of the Chicago Cubs or can even use the farm in trades to get good right now. Either way, the Los Angeles Dodgers have some more competition in the form of the San Diego Padres.