Column: Machado should be Padres MVP, even if Tatis Jr. gets NL award

Selecting a Padres MVP between Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado is like choosing a flavor of ice cream. You can’t go wrong. Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, butter pecan and mint chocolate chip are the top-5 ice cream flavors, per Americans surveyed last year by YouGuv. Scoop me any of those five, I’m happy.

You say Jake Cronenworth deserves Padres MVP honors? I say he’s worth consideration.

For me it came down to Tatis and Machado.

Barring a dramatic change in the season’s final two weeks, I chose Machado.

He filled up three big boxes on my checklist: 1) valuable offense; 2) valuable defense; and 3) nearly perfect availability.

In the less quantifiable realm of intangibles, I won’t turn down what Padres management and players are selling: Machado has grown into this team’s top leader. Don’t hold that against him. You can’t pin the team’s disappointing win-loss record on him.

It’s almost brazen to hand Machado the team’s MVP award, given the terrific season by Tatis.

Heck, Tatis may be worthy of the National League’s MVP award — which Machado, speaking before Tuesday’s game, said Tatis deserves.

The 22-year-old has put together the best offensive season on the team. This cannot be disputed. Tatis has the most home runs (39) and offensive win shares (7.0, Baseball Reference) in the NL, ranks second in slugging percentage (.618) and third in OPS (.986) and stolen bases (25).

For pure entertainment value across one series, nothing in this Padres season topped the FernanDiego display of power hitting and baserunning at Dodger Stadium in April.

Machado is my Padres MVP because in contrast to Tatis, who had a bad defensive first half and missed some 30 games with a recurring shoulder injury, there were no big holes to his season.

Offensively, Machado delivered very solid, if unspectacular returns. He owns a hitting line of .281/.347/.493 that is nearly identical to his career norms, is fourth in RBIs (93), seventh in offensive win shares (4.5) and 11th in doubles (31).

He earned high marks on defense, not only for his excellence as a third baseman but his versatile play within ever-changing shifts that stationed him up the infield’s middle and in right field.

One reason the Padres sat among MLB leaders in run prevention throughout the season’s first half was their top-tier efficiency on shifts. Machado often brought those algorithms to life.

As a thrower, he performed like baseball’s Patrick Mahomes. He whipped strikes from various angles, either flat-footed or on the move.

A star playing almost all a team’s games isn’t always a huge benefit to the team. There’s a good reason most ballclubs are chopping up workloads and scaling back the iron men’s totals.

For this Padres team, which has carried a few bench players who were overmatched as hitters, Machado playing through fatigue and injury was likely a net gain.

Providing ballast to a team prone to extreme streakiness, he piled up the team’s highest total of plate appearances, innings and games started.

As for his intangibles, not knowing what went on behind the scenes the past eight months, I can’t make a fair evaluation.

But when he confronted young Tatis during a tense game Saturday in St. Louis, telling him to move on from a called third strike and focus on playing baseball, Machado was making a lot of sense.

For very good reason, baseball teachers harp on “not taking your bat into the field.” Brooding about offense can pollute a player’s defense.

A month earlier, Machado was guilty of allowing his own frustration with the plate umpire to overly affect him. He got himself thrown out of a game just two pitches after manager Jayce Tingler was tossed on Machado’s behalf. As a result, catcher Victor Caratini had to play third base.

Machado’s tough love for Tatis was similar to former Padre (and league MVP) Ken Caminiti invading the space of a star teammate who’d loafed on the basepaths. The player took a seat in the dugout. Here’s how Caminiti dealt with it: He bent down in front of the player within mere inches of his face and glared at him for several seconds.

Message received.

Another time, Caminiti tossed a star teammate’s clothes into manager Bruce Bochy’s office. The player had second-guessed a managerial decision one time too many. It didn’t happen again. Not within earshot of Caminiti.

When mental errors by Padres teammates led to a loss in Philadelphia, Tony Gwynn screamed critiques so loudly afterward they could be heard outside the team’s clubhouse. Gwynn responded the next day with a strong game.

Addressing the confrontation in St. Louis, Machado and Tatis told reporters Tuesday the fallout was handled within the team. They said the team’s struggles in a playoff race — this group’s first race within a 162-game season — fueled the episode.

“It’s part of what this game brings out, especially when good players are trying to win and stuff is not going our way,” Tatis said. Machado referred to Tatis as his little brother. He said they will be teammates for many years: “We’ve got bigger things to be worried about than something that is not a big deal.”

If they care enough to get heated up during a game while performing under contracts that guarantee them no less than $300 million, that’s likely good for a franchise that last advanced to the playoffs off a 162-game season in 2006 and never has posted a “full season” winning record under the braintrust of Peter Seidler, Ron Fowler and A.J. Preller.