Fernando Tatis Jr., Center Fielder
The San Diego Padres are experimenting with a position change for their most important player. It seems a little bit crazy, until you think about it long enough.
Let’s talk briefly about Fernando Tatis Jr. switching positions, because it looks like it is actually happening.
After being rumored for what feels like over a year, the San Diego Padres are finally asking their superstar player to abandon the position that he’s played since the moment they traded for him and try out something completely different.
This isn’t Alex Rodriguez switching to third base, or even Cal Ripken Jr. moving over there, two players that Tatis has been compared to as a taller-than-average shortstop. This is a big change.
As a matter of fact, one of the reasons that Tatis even plays shortstop is because he grew up a big fan of Derek Jeter. After being signed by the Chicago White Sox as a teen, Tatis told their Chief of Operations, “I want to be the Dominican Derek Jeter.”
Jeter famously pushed against a switch to CF early in his career and ended up being a below-average shortstop defensively for at least the second half of his career as a result.
Why is this happening?
There’s two schools of thought as to why the Padres are pushing Tatis, in the middle of a pennant race, to try a new position.
One is that outfield will result in less injuries, or at least less stress on Nando’s injured shoulder. Before you argue about outfielders diving just as often as infielders, hear out the team’s logic…
Outfielders have more time to react before diving to get a ball. Whereas shortstops are diving on pure instinct, pretty much the same second the ball is hit, the outfielder has a second to make a decision. If the team wanted Tatis to play CF without diving for a single ball, they could ask that of him and he could play that way. That’s not true at SS.
The other argument for moving Tatis has more to do with the players around him. Adam Frazier had been terrible, offensively and defensively, as the team’s 4th outfielder. Now that he’s back at second base, he’s playing much better. And Jake Cronenworth’s defense at SS is showing that the team doesn’t need Tatis there.
Getting Tatis in the OF means the team can sit the ice-cold Wil Myers and improve both their offense and defense at the same time. It also, eventually, means less playing time for Jurickson Profar (who has proven to be not the player he was in 2020’s short season) and gives the team a backup plan in case Tommy Pham does not want to sign back with them this offseason.
Do not be surprised if the 2022 Padres start opening day with and outfield of Myers-Tatis-Grisham and an infield of Machado-Cronenworth-Frazier-Hosmer.
And then the team is well set up if/when all-world prospect C.J. Abrams arrives. Frazier only has one year left of team control and Hosmer has an opt-out coming up. Cronenworth could end up back at 2B or 1B someday, with Abrams taking over the SS spot when he’s ready.
Is Tatis okay with this?
Yes. The team signed him for what will likely be his entire career, but that also gives him a ton of power. Unless they want $340 million wasted, the Padres want to make sure he’s happy with that contract.
If Tatis didn’t want to be playing in the outfield, I don’t think he would be. He could easily say “I’m not doing that” to the idea and the Padres would do…what, exactly? Trade him? HAHAHA
They could tell him that he’s not coming off the IL as a shortstop and needs to switch to OF or else, but Tatis could easily counter that by demanding a trade and forever ruining the reputation of the Padres.
Nando has all of the power and the leverage. You won’t find him doing anything he doesn’t want to do for at least the next decade.
What should we expect?
If you have five minutes and a curiosity about Tatis’ ability as a outfielder, I suggest watching this video of Wayne Kirby talking about his instruction of Tatis over the last few days:
The short version? Kirby is impressed. He predicted a Gold Glove for Fernando in the outfield. He compared an outfield with Tatis and Grisham to the Red Sox when they had Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr.
He actually makes a really good point, although it’s done so casually you could miss it, about Tatis’ speed. As previously mentioned, the SS position is more about instinct and immediate reactions. The OF position can be about that, the better jump you get the better positioned you are to make the play (Kirby says at one point that Tatis won’t need to dive for anything if he gets a good jump on it, but also noted that the new OF still needs to figure out if he wants to play shallow or deep), but the OF position also allows you to make up for any misreads with speed. And we know Tatis has speed in spades. That speed will play better in the OF than it ever did at SS.
I don’t think the team is going to move Tatis to center field this season. That would be too disruptive to both him and Grisham, who literally won a Gold Glove at the position last year. But I do think it’s coming soon, and I’ve gotten myself to a place of expecting Tatis to be the everyday right fielder when he’s ready to come off the IL.