Since making his major league debut in 2019, Fernando Tatis Jr. has favored pink accessories to make his jersey stand out. Whether it’s shoelaces, sweatbands, belts, headbands or soccer shoes – something pink can often be seen. As he plays the game, it is a signal to his mother that he is always thinking of her.
On Saturday night in San Diego, it was a pink glove that caught the eye in the fourth inning as he galloped across the right field turf and, with his jumping body out, reached out at the last second to launch a rocket out of the air. With two ons and two outs, Boston’s Triston Casas had completed a blistering drive toward the outfield wall at an exit speed of 108 mph. It sailed over Tatis’ head… until it was gone.
In many ways, with his bat, his glove and his celebrations, everything is back to normal for Tatis, a 24-year-old superstar whose career had spiraled out of control in more ways than one.
“It’s like this every day now,” said manager Bob Melvin, marveling at Tatis and his penchant for stunning moves. “Give him a few reps and he can do any position in any sport.”
When Tatis returned to the sport on April 20, after two surgeries and an 80-game suspension for a positive steroid test, Tatis had not played a major league baseball game in more than a year. The expectations of his return were immense, but the questions were also great.
How watered down could his game be after more than a year away? Would his surgically repaired left shoulder, which dislocated several times in 2021, affect his ability at the plate? Has a second operation on his right wrist, broken in a motorcycle accident in the Dominican Republic, finally fixed everything?
Then there were the additional questions: After the public shaming that came with testing positive for clostebol, an anabolic steroid, and his subsequent punishment, how would Tatis handle his return to the limelight? And had he sufficiently restored the destroyed trust in his teammates?
“It wasn’t going to be easy,” Tatis said during a call at the Padres’ clubhouse last weekend. “This is probably the toughest game in the world. I have prepared myself. There’s a mental grind, a physical grind. But you know, I’m just trying to be totally ready.”
As the Padres travel to Yankee Stadium this weekend and Tatis faces perhaps his toughest test yet in terms of public setback, the biggest gamble in Padres history looms – a 14-year, $340 million contract, which Tatis was awarded after just 143 major league games to be back on track to pay dividends. The young star has once again risen to the challenge and those around the Padres are speaking of his grace and newfound humility.
“For him, the responsibility was definitely there,” said Joe Musgrove, San Diego’s top starting pitcher. “And it started about 80 games ago. He went through a slump for a few weeks post-lockdown and it was understandable. But he managed well to put it behind him. He fixes constraints with the players, the coaching staff and the fans. He has forgiven himself and gotten over his mistakes.
“Some mistakes cannot be fixed. Some you can. He can do this.”
Musgrove’s tone when discussing Tatis’ behavior since suspension was radically different from the past two seasons as tensions between Tatis, his team-mates and the Padres coaching staff regularly flared. The fights in the dugout and the questions about Tatis’ maturity are gone, at least for now, as he stayed out of trouble and prepared for his return.
A big part of that preparation, Tatis said, involved the mental side of his game. He knew the noise would be loud from opponents and rival fans looking for any weak spot they could find. He spent much of the winter “having good conversations about baseball with good baseball players,” he said. “I feel like I put it all together.”
Talks began with his father, Fernando Tatis Sr., who played with the majors from 1997-2010, according to Tatis. Back home in the Dominican Republic, Tatis Jr. also chatted with mentors like Wilton Veras, who briefly played for the majors Red Sox, and his friend Robinson Canó, the former major league star who was twice suspended for taking performance-enhancing drugs.
“It’s always good to talk baseball with this guy,” Tatis said of Canó. “And there are other guys on the list, but if I started mentioning them all, it probably wouldn’t end today.”
The Padres brought Tatis to their FanFest in early February to tick an early box: his return to public life. It was a friendly, local crowd at Petco Park, but it served the purpose. While the suspension wasn’t complete, it allowed him one foot out of the box and allowed him to focus fully on baseball going forward.
Melvin, who has been without Tatis in his first 182 games as Padres manager, was thrilled to add the young star to the line-up.
“It was really a day of celebration for both of us,” Melvin said. “He had been watching casually for so long. And really, he was one of the reasons I came here.”
Tatis, who said batting would be the hardest part of his comeback, went 0-5 at the plate in his first return game but accumulated at least one hit in each of his next nine games. Overall, he’s hit a .267 on seven home runs through Tuesday, falling short of his best but showing regular flashes of his old self.
On the same night as his sensational catch against Boston, Tatis drilled a slider from Chris Sale 440 feet into the night, giving him home runs in consecutive games for the first time in almost two years. Four nights earlier, he showed his newfound comfort in the outfield, unleashing a perfect shot from right field at 96.8mph – in the blink of an eye – and pinning Kansas City player Vinnie Pasquantino, who was attempting to mit to move from first to third place with a single.
Tatis, who came to the majors as an error-prone but exciting shortstop, is the only outfielder in the league this season with two assists that went 96 mph or faster. On May 10, in Minnesota, he ejected Carlos Correa with a 100-mile laser on home plate.
“Things are heating up,” said Alex Cora, Boston’s manager, who noted that his Red Sox “have seen three of the most complete players in the game in the last three weeks,” namely Tatis, Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. and Seattle’s Julio Rodríguez .
Tatis’ inclusion in such a group was expected after he finished fourth in the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award poll in 2020 and third in 2021. But Cora brought that praise to a player who has been sidelined for more than a year and has been asking numerous questions about his future, showing just how many fences Tatis has repaired.
“By and large, I don’t know how anyone could handle this so quickly and do a better job than him,” Melvin said of Tatis’ return to prominence.
The public reaction, while aggressive at times, did not upset Tatis.
When he hit a home run during a Class AAA rehab session in early April, the pitcher he had tackled, Giants minor league player Kade McClure, responded with a tweet: “Cheater hits at rehab session during a Steroid lock a home run.” Tatis shrugged off the now-deleted message. He said he expects such reactions and will keep playing the game and having fun.
True to his word as fans at Wrigley Field serenaded him with shouts of “He’s on steroids!” Tatis disarmed her with a playful flutter.
“I wouldn’t say I would have done it that way,” said midfielder Trent Grisham. “But a smile usually dispels hostility.”
Melvin added: “He’s sort of the ultimate entertainer, isn’t he? As for baseball.”
Another of Tatis’ advisors was teammate Nelson Cruz, who has the prospect of returning after his 50-game ban on performance-enhancing drugs in 2013. Be yourself, Cruz advised Tatis, and just go play.
That’s what Tatis did early in his career, when his talent propelled him to celebrity status so quickly that he trailed only the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts in jersey sales for the 2021 season. Whether Tatis can regain that level of fame remains to be seen, but in little more than a month he seems to be on the right track.
“I don’t want to be selfish,” he said when asked for an initial self-assessment of his game. “Obviously it’s going well. But I know I have a lot more leeway. I feel like I’m not at my best yet.”
Reactions to his first visit to Dodger Stadium this month were noticeably muted — hostility there remained mostly directed at Padres infielder Manny Machado — but Tatis smiled when asked to anticipate this weekend’s visit to the Yankee stage to look forward to.
“It’ll be fine,” he said. “We’ll see. New York. The good thing is there will be a lot of Dominicans out there. So that’s positive. But it’s still New York.”
He was giggling as he spoke, and the various pink clothing items were practically glowing out of his locker behind him. A 24-year-old who has his career ahead of him and is dying to experience all that Yankee Stadium has to offer.
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