Padres roster review: Fernando Tatis Jr. – San Diego Union-Tribune
FERNANDO TATIS JR.
Position(s): Right field
Bats / Throws: Right / Right
2026 opening day age: 27
Height / Weight: 6-foot-3 / 217 pounds
How acquired: Via trade with the Chicago White Sox in June 2016
Contract status: Will make $20 million in the fifth year of a 14-year, $340 million contract; will make $25 million each of the next two seasons and then $36 million annually through 2034.
fWAR in 2025: 6.1
Key 2025 stats: .268 AVG, .368 OBP, .446 SLG, 25 HRs, 71 RBIs, 111 runs, 89 walks, 129 strikeouts, 32 steals (155 games, 691 plate appearances)
STAT TO NOTE
10.9 — The percentage of Tatis’ batted balls in which he barreled the baseball, a career low and well below his career average (14.3%). Tatis peaked with a 21.3% barrel rate in 2021, when he led the National League with 42 homers. He ranked in the top-2 percentile in average exit velocity in 2021 (93.9 mph), was in the top-5 percentile in 2025 (93.3 mph) and his average bat speed hasn’t had a significant change, suggesting that the fall-off was mechanical in nature. Tatis also set a career-high in groundball rate (49%) and ranked in the bottom-4 percentile with a 28.9% launch-angle sweet spot rate, a career low.
TRENDING
Idle — Since becoming a full-time right fielder, Tatis has ranked among the best in the game on defense. His exploits in the field in 2025 include robbing at least four home runs, leading all right fielders with 15 defensive runs saved, according to Sports Info Solutions, and winning his second Gold Glove and Platinum Glove (overall best defender in the NL). In short, Tatis is an absolute game-changer in right field. To return to MVP conversations, however, he’ll need to produce as he did before his steroid suspension and Tatis was doing just that through the first month of the season, pairing eight homers with a 1.020 OPS through 30 games. But he was struck by a pitch on his left forearm the first game of the month, the start of a downturn that saw Tatis post a .668 over 56 games. Tatis did not go on the injured list and insisted that the pitch did not affect his mindset. He instead talked time and time again about being mechanically off, which the numbers bear out (see stat to note). Tatis was still an All-Star for the third time in his career and hit seven home runs over the final month of the season (.900 OPS), seemingly putting him in position to put on a postseason show as he did in 2024 (1.500 OPS). But Tatis went just 1-for-12 in the NL Wild Card Series against the Cubs and had three ugly strikeouts in an 0-for-4 effort in a season-ending 3-1 loss in Game 3.
2026 OUTLOOK
Tatis lost all of 2022 to procedures to his wrist and shoulder, as well as an 80-game steroid suspension that ate into the start of the 2023 season. The absence is a line of demarcation in his career: Tatis had a .965 OPS through the first three seasons of his career and has an .803 OPS over his last three seasons. His defense in right field is elite, but Tatis’ bat producing like it did earlier in his career — and the first month of 2025 — can take him to new levels and help keep the Padres’ competitive window open.
Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. makes a catch to rob the Reds’ Tyler Stephenson of a home run on Tuesday. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
ROSTER RANKINGS
1. OF Fernando Tatis Jr.
2. 3B Manny Machado
3. OF Jackson Merrill
4. RHP Nick Pivetta
5. RHP Michael King
6. RHP Mason Miller
7. OF Ramón Laureano
8. SS Xander Bogaerts
9. LHP Adrián Morejón
10. RHP Jeremiah Estrada
11. RHP Jason Adam
12. 2B Jake Cronenworth
13. RHP Joe Musgrove
14. RHP Randy Vasquez
15. OF Gavin Sheets
16. LHP JP Sears
17. RHP Yu Darvish
18. RHP Bradgley Rodriguez
19. RHP David Morgan
20. C Freddy Fermin
21. LHP Wandy Peralta
22. C Luis Campusano
23. LHP Yuki Matsui
24. INF Sung-Mun Song
25. RHP Matt Waldron
26. OF Bryce Johnson
27. RHP Ron Marinaccio
28. RHP Bryan Hoeing
29. LHP Kyle Hart
30. RHP Jhony Brito
31. INF Will Wagner
32. OF Tirso Ornelas
33. RHP Garrett Hawkins
34. RHP Miguel Mendez
35. RHP Daison Acosta
36. RHP Ty Adcock
37. RHP Alek Jacob
38. INF Mason McCoy
RevContent Feed