Manny Machado says Padres Spring Training an opportunity for 'bragging rights' after Fernando Tatis Jr. vs Nick Pivetta battle

Spring training sessions offer teammates a chance to face off against each other before the regular season begins. It is also an opportunity for "bragging rights" according to Manny Machado.

On Wednesday, Fernando Tatis Jr. had a seemingly intense practice session against the newest Padres signee Nick Pivetta during a live batting session at the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Arizona.

Machado appeared on Ben & Woods' podcast on Thursday and spoke about spring training and the aforementioned session between Tatis Jr. and Pivetta.

"It's fun, man. It's a friendly competition, right?" Machado said (8:41 onwards). "I mean, it's something where we can push each other on things. There's a lot of feedback that goes into these matchups. We kind of give them feedback on, like, 'Hey, this pitch is doing this, this pitch is doing that.' They're also testing out pitches, so there's a lot of feedback we can give them."

Machado added that even though it's all in good fun, some moments stick with the players throughout the season.

"Some bragging rights stay the whole year," he said. "You can always go back to that bomb you hit off some guys."

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Manny Machado looks forward to a healthy 2025 season

Manny Machado has faced his fair share of injuries in his career. He played with a troubling elbow injury the entire 2023 season, underwent surgery to fix it in the offseason and the subsequent recovery preyed upon his 2024 season as well. The Padres shifted him to play DH before he got 100% ready to take up the mantle of hot corner once again.

Heading into the 2025 season, Machado said something's different about the start of this year than his last two years.

“It’s different, definitely,” Machado said on Tuesday (via MLB.com). “It feels good. I had a really good offseason. Obviously there’s going to be bumps and bruises. I think that’s just the beauty of baseball. We all enjoy it. I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for it.”

With Machado's injury struggles seemingly behind him, the Padres would hope he would be available for as many games as possible and lead them to the postseason.