{"id":442848,"date":"2026-08-25T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442848\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:06:09","slug":"the-secret-to-san-diegos-success-fernando-tatis-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442848\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret to San Diego’s Success: Fernando Tatis Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Diego Padres<\/a> struggled through the first half of the season. In the first quarter, they won plenty of games they had no business winning. That helped them build up a lead that quickly eroded when their previous luck began to turn against them. That brought the Friars to a measly .500 record heading into the All-Star breakMuch of that underperformance came from the lack of production from the Padres\u2019 star players. Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. had massively underwhelmed to begin the season. At the time, Machado was hitting below .200, Merrill was hovering just above .200 and Tatis had just hit his first home run of the season on May 30. <\/p>\n

But, since then, the Padres have gone a blistering 23-12. They\u2019ve amazingly won 21 of their last 28 games, and it\u2019s due to that star trio surging back. Machado\u2019s average hasn\u2019t improved by much, but his power has returned. The third baseman now has 24 home runs on the year, entering play on Tuesday. With his 20th homer of the year in Saturday\u2019s game against the Minnesota Twins<\/a>, Merrill posted the first 20\/20 season of his young career. But it\u2019s been Tatis who has truly stolen the show lately. The right fielder has put up two multi-homer games in the last week, one against the New York Mets<\/a> and another against the Twins. That, combined with some elite defense, has launched Tatis back to the star caliber he once was. <\/p>\n

A Star-Studded Roster<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that San Diego\u2019s roster is laden with long, expensive contracts and big star players. Between Xander Bogaerts, Machado, Merrill and Tatis, there\u2019s roughly $1.1 billion tied up in guaranteed money. That has seriously limited the team in the last few offseasons, but it\u2019s hard to argue with the results. The Friars have made the playoffs in four of the last six seasons, and have done so with consecutive 90-win seasons over the last two years. San Diego seems poised to earn a playoff spot again this year. In doing so, the Friars would accomplish something never before done in franchise history: make the postseason in three consecutive seasons. Certainly, part of that is due to the expanded playoff format, but the Padres have definitely turned the franchise around in a major way in the last decade. <\/p>\n

Tatis\u2019 Entrance to San Diego<\/p>\n

That all started with Tatis. On June 4, 2016, the Friars traded pitcher James Shields to the Chicago White Sox<\/a> for Erik Johnson and a 17-year-old Fernando Tatis Jr. It was one of those transactions that felt somewhat meaningless at the time. It quickly became one of the most lopsided trades of all time. He made his MLB debut three years later, earning a spot on San Diego\u2019s Opening Day roster in 2019. Since then, he\u2019s been a perennial superstar and took the league by storm in 2021. Tatis launched 42 homers that year and ended up signing a contract extension with the Friars for 14 years and $340 million. <\/p>\n

Then came the regression and the steroid controversies. Tatis was suspended for testing positive for steroid use. The slugger maintains that it was accidental due to a topical spray Tatis acquired in the Dominican Republic for ringworm. That\u2019s not nearly as far-fetched as it sounds, with the D.R. using steroids in plenty of its over-the-counter medications. Whether it was intentional or not, Tatis remained suspended and the allegations that the 42-homer season was tainted have never gone away. Tatis has kept most of his power, hitting 20-plus home runs each year, though never reaching the same heights he achieved in that 2021 season. <\/p>\n

A Strange 2026<\/p>\n

Of the three stars mentioned earlier, Tatis had the most difficult start to 2026. He did not hit a home run until May 30. For a star player known for his power, it was a strange sight to see. Not only that, but he couldn\u2019t even seem to lift the ball into the outfield. Once again, the steroid rumors resurfaced, but Tatis kept grinding it out. He began to bat for average, as that seemed like all he could do, and eventually lifted his batting average to a respectable .290 before hitting that first bomb. It was believed (and hoped) that the home runs would come in bunches, especially since they had taken so long to come at all. Instead, Tatis only hit a few every now and then, struggling to find a groove.<\/p>\n

Heating Up in the Second Half<\/p>\n

Then, it happened. They came in bunches. Before the All-Star break, Fernando Tatis Jr.\u2019s stat line was .277\/.340\/.374 with five home runs. It\u2019s certainly not terrible production, but it\u2019s not what the Friar Faithful have come to expect from their star right fielder. Since the All-Star break, Tatis has had a torrid stretch of baseball. In 34 games since the All-Star break, Tatis\u2019 numbers have improved dramatically to a scalding .328\/.418\/.679 with 12 home runs. Granted, it\u2019s a much smaller sample. But to say that Tatis has been the best player in baseball since the All-Star game is not a massive leap in logic. He\u2019s tied for the lead in homers since the All-Star break with NL MVP frontrunner Pete Crow-Armstrong, and he ranks in the top 10 in every other major offensive category. <\/p>\n

This version of Tatis is a problem for the rest of the league. This is the version of Tatis that decimated the Atlanta Braves<\/a> and Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> in the 2024 postseason. If the Padres continue on their current trajectory and make it to the playoffs, Tatis could very well be the difference-maker for San Diego in how deep a playoff run they end up making. He\u2019s the caliber of player who can lead this organization to their first World Series appearance since 1998, and their first championship in franchise history. Only time will tell how far superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. can take this Padres club. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Diego Padres struggled through the first half of the season. In the first quarter, they won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3494,74,76,75,2611],"class_list":["post-442848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-fernando-tatis-jr","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442848","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=442848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}