Page 9 - Sports Illustrated Kids (April 2019)

LONG TIME COMING
Manny Machado finally signed a contract—a
10-year, $300 million deal with the Padres—
in February. Should he have gotten more?

BURNING QUESTION ALEX RODRIGUEZ ASKED for
everything he wanted. When the
superstar shortstop first became a free
ARE MLB TEAMS agent at age 25, in 2000, he had a long

list of suitors. His demands to the
Mets—an office, private-jet trips, his
COLLUDING? face on billboards all over town—

infamously ended negotiations before
they started. Still, by December the

BY SAM PAGE Rangers had signed Rodriguez to a
record 10-year, $252 million deal.
Eighteen years later another
once-in-a-generation free agent in his
20s, Bryce Harper, hit the market. Yet
Photograph by
Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images by the time every team’s pitchers and

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