Another day, another at-bat, another home run for Fernando Tatis Jr. The San Diego Padres star went deep in his first at-bat Sunday afternoon, giving him six home runs in his last 12 at-bats with the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas. Tatis is playing minor-league rehab games in advance of rejoining the Padres this coming Thursday.
Here is Sunday's blast. Tatis hit three homers Thursday and two homers Saturday. He did not play Friday.
Another day, another at-bat, another home run for Fernando Tatis Jr. The San Diego Padres star went deep in his first at-bat Sunday afternoon, giving him six home runs in his last 12 at-bats with the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas. Tatis is playing minor-league rehab games in advance of rejoining the Padres this coming Thursday.
Here is Sunday's blast. Tatis hit three homers Thursday and two homers Saturday. He did not play Friday.
Entering Sunday's game Tatis owned a .536/.618/1.250 slash line with six homers, six walks, and two strikeouts in seven Triple-A games. They are the first seven Triple-A games of his career, it should be noted. Tatis skipped right over Triple-A and made the jump from Double-A to MLB when the made the Padres out of spring training in 2019.
The results have obviously been fantastic. Tatis is vaporizing the ball in Triple-A. What about the underlying numbers? Here's what Statcast says about the quality of Tatis' contact during his dominant Triple-A stint:
Hard-hit rate is the percentage of batted balls over 95 mph and a barrel is a batted ball similar to other batted balls that produced a .500 batting average and a 1.500 slugging percentage. Barrels are the best possible contact, basically. Tatis has always been an exit velocity monster. Truly elite, top-of-the league numbers. That has continued to be true in Triple-A.
Of course, we're talking about a tiny sample and Triple-A competition, so you'd expect Tatis to dominate. It is worth nothing that, in addition to the 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension, Tatis is also returning from two left wrist surgeries and a left shoulder surgery. That he's hitting the ball this hard suggests the wrist and shoulder are feeling good.
Players nearing a return from a PED suspension are allowed to play in minor league games to prepare for their return. Tatis is eligible to rejoin the Padres this coming Thursday, April 20. That will be the first game of a four-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
Tatis, 23, authored a .282/.364/.611 batting line with 25 stolen bases and a National League leading 42 home runs in 130 games in 2021. He has not played in an MLB game since the final day of the 2021 season.
When Tatis gets back the Padres will be higher then 10
Rangers' Jacob deGrom to have wrist reevaluated Tuesday
Texas Rangers right-hander Jacob deGrom was removed from his start Monday night against the Royals in Kansas City because of right wrist soreness.The team called the move precautionary and said deGrom will continue to be evaluated.
DeGrom had spun four hitless innings before departing, striking out five and walking one while throwing 39 of his 58 pitches for strikes. Dane Dunning replaced him, picking up the win after throwing 4⅓ innings of one-hit ball in Texas' 4-0 victory.
"I felt it a little bit warming up," deGrom said. "I thought it was going to loosen up and it actually tightened up a little bit as the game went on.
We're playing it smart. Could I have kept going? Probably. But it was lingering and it got a little bit worse as the game went on. I just want to play it safe. We've got a long season ahead of us."
DeGrom is 1-0 with a 3.48 ERA this season.
"I'm honestly not too concerned," deGrom said. "I would like to think I'll make my next [start], but we'll see how it is tomorrow."
DeGrom signed a five-year, $185 million contract with the Rangers this offseason after a decorated tenure with the Mets. Injuries, though, have been a problem for the 34-year-old. He missed the first four months of last season with a stress reaction in his shoulder, and injuries had limited him to 224⅓ innings over the past three seasons entering 2023.
He also had a minor setback at the start of the spring after feeling some tightness on his left side.
Texas manager Bruce Bochy said there's concern any time you have to take a player out of a game because of injury, but he's optimistic.
"We'll reevaluate him tomorrow," Bochy said. "Any time you take somebody out, that's a fair question. I think I can answer it better tomorrow. Right now, I feel pretty good about it."
Clayton Kershaw against the Mets in his career
10-0
2.17 ERA
114 K
10-0
2.17 ERA
114 K
