{"id":408753,"date":"2026-07-23T00:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T00:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/408753\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T00:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T00:45:09","slug":"tom-krasovic-fernando-tatis-jr-s-power-surge-could-change-padres-calculus-at-trade-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/408753\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Krasovic: Fernando Tatis Jr.’s power surge could change Padres’ calculus at trade deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rolling curveball served to Fernando Tatis Jr. Tuesday night in Atlanta was as inviting as a Waffle House special slathered with butter and syrup.<\/p>\n

There was much to like about how Tatis responded \u2014 and how the highest-upside Padre has perked up since getting a desperately needed recharge at the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

Tatis stroked the thigh-high pitch rather than jumping out of his cleats.<\/p>\n

Firm but fluid. Under control. On balance throughout.<\/p>\n

The ball rocketed beyond the left-center field wall \u2026 and over dozens of seats, rolling onto the concourse to a man in a Braves cap.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t very important that the drive, at an estimated 474 feet, was the longest in MLB this year.<\/a><\/p>\n

This was a display of easy power, all the parts working together in perfect fashion, the bat whistling through at 80-plus mph.<\/p>\n

The long-ball power is coming, and even at this late date, that\u2019s exciting for everyone in Padres Land.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s homer was the right-hander\u2019s third in five games since the All-Star break, giving him eight on the year and distancing the 27-year-old further from the worst home run drought of his career by far.<\/p>\n

If three homers in five games isn\u2019t a heater by Tatis\u2019 standards, nor should it be dismissed. Tatis has been stacking good at-bats for some time now, enabling him to rap out a majors-best 73 hits since May 18 entering Wednesday\u2019s game. Power, the hitting gurus tell us, is often the last element to materialize after other good stuff falls into place.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s coming now, and larger ramifications also must be considered. Tatis\u2019 potential to go off will be part of A.J. Preller\u2019s calculus as he weighs buy and sell prospects ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that Tatis appears refreshed by the All-Star break. The team\u2019s grueling 17-game, 17-day stretch going into the reset seemed particularly hard for him, and he acknowledged as much. Several players played through illness at one point or another. Tatis looked exhausted after a few of the road games in which he started fast before losing some zip.<\/p>\n

Without elaborating, he said he was definitely not at full strength. The whole 17-17 stretch, he said when it was done, had taxed him more than a little. Asked what he would do during the merciful All-Star break, he spoke in monotone:<\/p>\n

\u201cRest. Sleep. Be far from humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Diego Padres\u2019 Fernando Tatis Jr. jogs around the bases after hitting a two-run home run against the Atlanta Braves during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, July 21, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo\/Erik S. Lesser)
\nAdvancing on Adri\u00e1n<\/p>\n

One other thing to enjoy about this Tatis hot streak:\u00a0It has called attention to the amazing Padres career of Adri\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez, the franchise\u2019s all-time OPS leader who conquered the Petco Park monster.<\/p>\n

With one more home run, Tatis will pull even with Gonz\u00e1lez for third on the club\u2019s career list, behind Nate Colbert and leader Manny Machado.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez needed slightly fewer at-bats to amass his 161 homers with the Padres. The lefty homered every 18.48 at-bats, compared with one every 18.72 at-bats by Tatis heading into Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s bat speed was nothing special. Rather, he anticipated pitches very well and squared them up often.<\/p>\n

Where Petco Park of his era chewed up many hitters, particularly lefties, Gonz\u00e1lez overcame and posted an .888 OPS overall over the five seasons in San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look back at Adrian Gonz\u00e1lez and some of the numbers he put up here, and they really are remarkable,\u201d Giants general manager Buster Posey, who went against several Padres teams of that era, said in March before a game in San Diego. \u201cIt definitely is more hitter-friendly now than back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez, inspired by Phillies lefty slugger Ryan Howard, swung a longer and heavier bat at Petco Park that he said enabled him to drive outside pitches into the left-field seats.<\/p>\n

Tatis is far more of a pull hitter and a much speedier runner, but his and Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s career offensive statistics with the Padres line up closely.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez, across his 799 Padres games from 2006 through 2010, hit 161 home runs with a .288 batting average, a .374 on-base rate, a .514 slug rate and an adjusted OPS that was 41% above the major league average.<\/p>\n

Tatis went into his 772nd career game Wednesday with a .278 batting average, a .354 on-base rate, a .499 slug rate and an adjusted OPS that was 34% above the major league average.<\/p>\n

\"MannyManny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres celebrate after Machado\u2019s home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the second inning at Petco Park on Thursday, July 9, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nTeen sensations<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another thing that links Tatis and Gonz\u00e1lez. Scouts bet big on their potential greatness when both players were teens.<\/p>\n

Pacific Beach resident Orrin Freeman and other Marlins scouts became sold on Gonz\u00e1lez during his career at Eastlake High School, leading the team to draft him first overall at age 18. When Tatis was 16, White Sox scouts signed him for a $750,000 bonus. He was only 18 when Preller and scouts got him in a trade, sending pitcher James Shields to Chicago.<\/p>\n

The Padres would love for Tatis to soon blow by Gonz\u00e1lez and, with No. 164, pass up Colbert, the 1970s-era slugger who didn\u2019t allow San Diego Stadium\u2019s 17-foot outfield wall to defeat him.<\/p>\n

Machado\u2019s club record of 216 home runs is out of reach this year. But if Tatis is indeed heating up, the team\u2019s tepid summer might get a lot more interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rolling curveball served to Fernando Tatis Jr. Tuesday night in Atlanta was as inviting as a Waffle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127,1696],"class_list":["post-408753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}