San Diego Padres: Fernando Tatis Jr. extension seems to be in the works

The San Diego Padres and shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. have expressed interest in working on a long term extension to keep the fan favorite in San Diego.

The San Diego Padres and Fernando Tatis Jr. are going to be together forever.

Or at least so the rumor mill says.

As reported by Mike Axisa of CBS Sports, the Padres plan to look into an extension for Tatis Jr. this offseason.

And it’s hard to imagine they won’t be able to entice their franchise cornerstone to stay long term. Tatis Jr. isn’t even arbitration eligible yet. He’s four years away from free agency, which means if the Padres were so inclined, they could squeeze his talent at a discount rate for a few more seasons.

But the Padres have shown that they’re willing to spend big money on premium talent. They handed Wil Myers a six year, $83,000,000 contact in 2017. They brought Eric Hosmer into the mix on an eight year, $144,000,000 contract in 2018. In 2019, they brought Manny Machado in on a ten year, $300,000,000 contract.

The Padres are going to do right by Tatis Jr., and ensure he doesn’t play anywhere else for a long time. And why shouldn’t they? Padres fans haven’t loved a player the way they love Tatis Jr. in years. It would be a devastating blow to the fanbase to see him leave San Diego in search of his big payday.

And that big payday is sure to come. Tatis Jr. has quickly established himself as a premier player in the league. Should he reach free agency, the contract he would receive on the open market could rival Mike Trout‘s extension with the Los Angeles Angels. The Padres don’t want to get in a bidding war for Tatis Jr.’s services, so they’re going to do everything they can to lock him up early.

As they should. Tatis Jr. was the NL MVP favorite for the majority of 2020. Had he not missed half of 2019 due to injury, he probably would have beaten Pete Alonso out for NL Rookie of the Year. He has 30 homer, 30 steal potential. He hits the ball as hard as anyone in the league, leading all of baseball in average exit velocity at 95.9 mph and barrels per plate appearance at 12.5.%. In simpler terms, he hits the ball hard very often. And when you hit the ball hard as often as he does, good things are going to happen for you at the plate.

The most impressive thing about his 2020 season, however, was the drastic improvement he made on defense. In 2019, Tatis Jr. posted a -13 OAA at shortstop. Basically, that means he was a black hole defensively and an absolute liability.

But in 2020, Tatis Jr. posted a 7 OAA. That made him tied for the league lead in OAA, one of only two infielders to reach that mark, the other being Nolan Arenado, and the only shortstop to do it.

So to sum it up, he went from being one of the worst defensive shortstops in the league to the best defensive shortstop in the league in just one year.

Fernando Tatis Jr. is as complete a ballplayer as you will find in Major League Baseball. And the San Diego Padres are willing to invest a lot of money on the fact that he stays that way. The team is poised to be serious contenders over the next few years, and the fanbase is absolutely in love with him.

Ensuring that he’ll wear the brown and gold for the majority of his career is a no brainer move. Congrats in advance to Tatis Jr. on the upcoming major payday.