San Diego Padres may have difficulty keeping Fernando Tatis, Jr. down

An injury cut short the 2018 season of the prized San Diego Padres prospect, but the work he’s doing in the Dominican Winter League shows he’s picked up right where he left off. Now, for the big leagues…

Last spring, baseball fans watched as Ronald Acuna, Jr. tore through the Grapefruit League, ripping long drives off veteran major league pitchers, showing he belonged in the major leagues. The Atlanta Braves then made the announcement that he would open the season in the minor leagues, which set off a firestorm from both Braves fans and national writers alike. This spring could be the San Diego Padres turn to get roasted.

Sure, who wouldn’t want to start the 2019 season with super prospect Fernando Tatis, Jr. in the major leagues? The young infielder just turned 20 January 2nd, and he’s coming off a season where he hit .286/.355/.507 with 16 home runs and 16 stolen bases over 88 games in AA before an injury ended his season.

Those numbers alone for a 19-year-old in the upper minors would be impressive, but when you take into consideration that on May 1st, Tatis had opened his 2018 season in a month-long, 24-game .177/.231/.333 hole. He’d struck out 34 times in those games and walked 6 times. The rest of the way, he would hit .327/.400/.572 with a 9.3% walk rate and 25.9% strikeout rate.

At AA. At 19.

This young man is special. The incredible part is that we’ve not even mentioned his defense, which took a huge step forward in 2018 at shortstop. He’s continued to flash impressive range and arm in the Dominican Winter League as well.

Speaking of the DWL, after he recovered from his season-ending injury, Tatis went to the Dominican and played for his hometown team over the winter. He’s currently got his team in the DWL playoffs, where he is putting on a show. On the season, he’s hit .263/.379/.488 with 3 home runs and 7 stolen bases, but it’s the flair for the dramatic that has people sitting up to take notice:

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The San Diego Padres conundrum

Much like the Braves in 2018, the issue at hand is team control for Tatis. If the San Diego Padres were to send Tatis to AAA for a few weeks, they could gain an extra year of control before free agency. If they waited until after June, they could gain an extra year before he hits arbitration.

With the Padres 2019 contention plans unlikely at the moment, they are faced with the dilemma of how to handle a budding superstar. Making a decision that upsets Tatis could make keeping him in San Diego long-term more difficult once he gets near free agency, and he’s the type of player and person that the team would like to build around.

He’s still got to show success in spring training and win the job, of course, but Fernando Tatis, Jr. is certainly doing all he can to make the decision tough for the San Diego Padres.