Imagine what Manny Machado might have gotten had he actually deigned to run out ground balls in the playoffs.

As it is, the guy who offered no apologies —“that’s not my cup of tea” — for notoriously lollygagging his way to first base in last fall’s National League Championship Series is set to become the highest paid free-agent signee in North American sports history when his widely reported 10-year, $300 million deal with the San Diego Padres is concluded.

The shock isn’t that somebody was going to fork over $300 million to a baseball free agent this winter (Bryce Harper could still end up with more in the next couple of weeks after turning down $300 million to stay with the Nationals) or that a fleet of armored cars is en route to Machado’s house.

Rather it is that the Padres, of all teams, are the ones writing the checks for the next decade.

The New York Yankees, of course. The Philadelphia Phillies or Chicago White Sox, sure.

But the Padres, a team more renown for weird uniforms than winning? That is going to take some getting used to.

As White Sox general manager Kenny Williams told reporters in Chicago on Tuesday, “I’m wearing my shades so you can’t see the shock in my eyes.”

This is, after all, a small-market franchise that history tells us makes the playoffs once a decade, maybe. It has not made the playoffs for 12 consecutive seasons now. And not just by a little, either. The Friars have had eight consecutive losing campaigns, finished 66-96 in 2018 and were 251⁄2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.

But while the Dodgers cleared beaucoup cap space in the offseason and then proceeded to sit on their wallet, the Padres went back to the vault again and reached even deeper. After forking over $83 million over six years to keep outfielder Wil Myers and $144 million over eight years for first baseman Eric Hosmer last year, to mark the completion of their 50th year in San Diego, the Padres went in whole hog on Machado.

And it isn’t like the Machado signing on top of the others makes the Padres instant favorites in the division, either. When word of the agreement was reported, oddsmakers listed the Padres as 60-to-1 picks to win the world championship, up from 80-to-1 before Manny.

The only sure bet surrounding the Padres is that the price of tickets and, quite likely, the Rubio’s fish tacos at Petco Park, will be going up.

What the signing of the four-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove infielder does is send a clear message of intent that the Padres mean to be taken seriously and have their sights set on becoming contenders, someday.

When that day will come is a good question. But it might yet be a year or three away as shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and other young prospects who have prompted Baseball America and others to rate the Padres’ farm system so highly transition onto the major league roster.

But if Machado is supposed to change the Padres, it might still be too much to expect that becoming the $300 million man will change him, if at all.

As he put it last season when his baserunning became a topic of controversy, “Obviously I’m not going to change, I’m not the type of player that’s going to be ‘Johnny Hustle,’ and run down the line and slide to first base and … you know, whatever can happen. That’s just not my personality, that’s not my cup of tea, that’s not who I am.”

Changing the fortunes of the downtrodden Padres would be miracle enough.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.