by: Frase
Fernando Tatis Jr. was one of those “Can’t miss” prospects that didn’t disappoint. Within the first few weeks of Tatis Jr. starting in the bigs during the 2019 baseball fans could see he had something special. He could hit for contact and for power, good speed on the bases, he played an exciting brand of defense at short stop, and he had significant more swag than the average ball player.
The price of his rookie card’s value shot up, he was amongst the league leaders in jersey sales, he was hitting moon shots and looking damn cool while doing it.
During the 2021 season Tatis batted .282 with 42 home runs and 97 RBIs. At age 23 and having missed all the 2022 season he has already made an All-Star game and earned two silver sluggers.
The Padres decided to give the young phenom a 14 year $340 million contract.
Then the train fell off the tracks. Where did it go wrong?
Throughout times in the 2021 season there were videos of teammates getting upset with Tatis over lack of hustle. Most notably Manny Machado.
Then in the most recent off-season it was discovered that Tatis injured himself in a motorcycle accident. It was announced that he would start the year on the Injured List. Padres fans and front office were disappointed about the reckless decision but were willing to forgive and forget, assuming they would see him back on the field potentially before the All-Star break.
That never happened. Baseball fans started to wonder if he’d be back at all this year.
Then a Jeff Passan bomb hit Twitter. “Fernando Tatis Jr. will be suspended for 80 games, MLB announced. The suspension will cover the remainder of this season and will render him ineligible for the postseason. It will continue into the beginning of next year. On the verge of returning, he’s done for the year.”
Now, the situation has snowballed from Tatis being one of the young faces of baseball – To now the next time we see him on the baseball field it will be close to two years in between, and he will be coming off a PED suspension.
I will not at all pretend to know the circumstances of his suspension. Only he knows if he was cheating intentionally or not, and to what extent.
I’m not rooting against him, he’s a pleasure to watch on the baseball field. I hope he finds a way to turn it all around for the better moving forward in his career.
P.S. Fun Fact
His dad Fernando Tatis Sr is the only player in MLB history to hit two grand slams in the same inning.