PEORIA, Ariz. — Fernando Tatis Jr. appears to be back.
And not just from the flu that sidelined him for five days.
No, this is more back in the metaphorical sense. And if it turns out to be real, it could also be monumental — maybe even enough to be back on track for that statue.
The flu was an interruption.
The past few years have been start and stop.
“Health,” Tatis said. “It’s been a huge part of that. But I feel like that’s way behind us, and man, I’m just ready. I feel amazing. My body is in a good spot. I definitely can’t wait.”
The significance of those words — if validated by what occurs in the season — is almost impossible to overstate.
Tatis doesn’t attempt to undersell what it means that he is healthy.
“I haven’t felt this good since the offseason of 2020 coming into 2021,” Tatis said. “It feels great. My body is in a great spot, my swing is in an amazing spot. And definitely looking forward to what this year is going to be.”
And what that is going to be, in the estimation of the man who just turned 26 in January, is what it once was.
“All the respect to all the big-league talent that is out there,” Tatis said. “I definitely acknowledge them. But when I’m 100% and my head is in the right spot, I feel like I’m second to no one in the baseball field. But definitely knowing what the work takes to be there. And especially the competition that is out there. And definitely embracing (it), because players are so good right now in this time of the baseball era, it only makes you want to be better and get better. So I’m definitely in that role and looking forward to being the best version of myself out there.”
To know what that might mean, all that has to be recalled is the start of Tatis’ career, before the motorcycle ride and ringworm.
Among active players, Tatis’ .965 OPS in his first three seasons was second only to Aaron Judge (.976) after the first 273 games of his career. Tatis’ 81 home runs were exactly as many as Judge, and they hit eight more than any other active player had 273 games into his career.
Tatis’ 13.1 wins above replacement through 273 games ranked third behind Judge’s 18.0 and the 16.7 by Mike Trout.
Even playing virtually the entire season with a torn labrum in his shoulder, Tatis led the National League with 42 home runs in 2021 and finished third in National League MVP voting, a year after finishing fourth. He was the fastest player to ever reach the combination of 50 career homers and 50 career stolen bases.
That sure was a good start to the “statue contract,” the 14-year, $340 million deal he signed in February 2021.
But after the lockout, Tatis showed up to spring training in 2022 with a fractured wrist suffered in a fall off a motorcycle during the offseason. He underwent surgery that March and was working toward a comeback in August when he failed a performance-enhancing drug test — for clostebol, which he attributed to a medication he took to treat ringworm — and was suspended for 80 games. He served three-quarters of that suspension at the end of 2022 and had two surgeries in that time — a revision of his wrist surgery, which had not taken, and a repair of the labrum in his right shoulder that he had declined to have after the 2021 season.
He returned 20 games into the 2023 season after not having played in the major leagues for more than 18 months.
That was not a terrible season. Tatis hit .257 with a .770 OPS and a career-high 29 stolen bases in 141 games.
That was not even a bad season, except by Tatis’ standards.
His 25 home runs in 575 at-bats meant he hit one every 23 at-bats, about twice as many as the pace he set in his first three seasons (12.7). His average was down 35 points from 2019-21, and his OPS was down 195 points.
With an offseason to rest and get ready — he played in the Dominican Winter League for the first time as a major leaguer — Tatis came into 2024 saying he had something to prove.
And he was on track to do so, maintaining a relatively scorching pace through most of the first three months of the season — while playing most of it on a right leg that often felt like it was being pressed into by hot irons.
Even as he limped between plays and held up on some base hits, he started 78 of the Padres’ first 79 games and was batting .279 with an .821 OPS when he was lifted midway through a game on June 21. Those numbers were second on the team behind Jurickson Profar. Tatis’ 14 home runs led the team.
He was shut down with a stress reaction in his right femur and did not return until Sept. 2. He estimated recently that his leg was at about 60% when he came back, and he said he arrived at the ballpark and went home in pain virtually every day.
“I just needed to play baseball,” Tatis said. “I knew it was not probably gonna get way worse than where it was already. And I’m a guy that can control a lot of pain, probably because I have felt a lot of pain through my career. But man, it was just to myself looking at the mirror, you know, saying what I’m capable of doing.”
He batted .267 with an .868 OPS in the 22 games after his Sept. 2 return.
And then he showed in the postseason what he had shown in his previous postseason (in 2020) and what he thinks he is capable of showing every time it is most important.
He batted .423 (11-for-26) with three doubles and four home runs in the Padres’ seven playoff games.
Even after going 1-for-8 in the final two games of the National League Division series loss to the Dodgers, a span in which the Padres were scoreless and as a team batted .145 (9-for-62), Tatis is now a .375/.474/.854 hitter in his career in the playoffs. His 1.328 OPS is fifth highest in history in a player’s first 13 career postseason games.
That is a fine campaign, all things considered.
“The guy played with a broken leg and made an All-Star team,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “That speaks to … maturity, dedication. And that, I don’t think he gets enough credit for.”
Tatis said this offseason was a winter of rejuvenation, mostly spent on his farm.
“I brought myself to places where my mind — I just feel like I was feeling myself, first my mind and then my body,” he said. “So that was just my entire goal of the offseason. Enjoy the healing waters of the Dominican Republic. … Definitely enjoying my farm and being out there outdoors, being barefoot, walking around.”
That was time well spent, evidently.
Physical and mental alignment are the optimum for any athlete. But few are as overtly at their best when they are feeling it as Tatis is.
“Tatis is in a good place, man,” hitting coach Victor Rodriguez said. “He finished strong, and he’s really doing good. … He’s feeling real good. He’s feeling real comfortable. He’s healthy, and he’s in a good place physically and mentally. His preparation is probably the key. He’s coming in and he’s working with a purpose. This guy is not wasting swings.
“He told me, ‘This is not eye wash. I come in here to work, and I’m working the right amount of time. I’m not gonna take 100 swings just to take it. I’m gonna work. I’m gonna work to be prepared to be who I am.’”
On Wednesday, his first day back on the field after missing nearly a week with the flu, Tatis was his usual self, dancing and laughing and hitting homers. Or a homer. A long one to center field in a live batting practice against Nick Pivetta.
Tatis will likely play Friday night against the Mariners. It will be his first game of the spring.
And then …
“Let him cook,” Tatis said with a big smile when asked what kind of numbers he can put up in 2025.
It is something he does from time to time. He speaks in memes, dropping current slang to get across his point.
This one means to let someone do what they do uninterrupted.
Tatis has never been able to do that. Not once. Every season since his rookie year in 2019 has been abbreviated or otherwise altered by injury, suspension or pandemic.
“You just grow in every single area,” Tatis said.
“Definitely more mature, turning into a man. And you know, growing pains, for different people, you learn different ways. In my case, I feel like everybody almost has seen it. It is in the public. But just embracing every single battle. What I’ve been through, I feel like it has made me today. And I feel like I just keep evolving. I just keep getting better as a human being, I just keep getting better as a baseball player, and I know what I’m capable of. I’m still having to show it out there to 100% so I’m just really looking forward to that.”
