San Diego Padres

San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. was forced to leave Saturday night's game against the Cincinnati Reds with an apparent shoulder injury.

Tatis was hurt after making a diving attempt on a ball through the left side of the infield in the top of the fifth inning.

Fernando Tatis Jr. was a little slow to get up after a diving effort on this play. pic.twitter.com/5ejcM4leQr

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 20, 2021

This is potentially another setback for the young star, who already missed time this season with a shoulder issue and oblique injury.

Any injury to Tatis is particularly concerning for the Padres given his overall importance to the franchise both in the current season and in the future. He won a Silver Slugger award in 2020 with a .277/.366/.571 slash line, 17 home runs, 45 RBI and 11 stolen bases in 59 games.

The 22-year-old has followed up with a .283/.360/.677 slash line, 22 home runs, 50 RBI and 13 stolen bases this season.

While San Diego will struggle to replicate Tatis' overall production if he is sidelined, look for Ha-Seong Kim to take over at shortstop in the meantime.

San Diego Padres outfielder Tommy Pham was the victim of an attack outside of a downtown San Diego night club in October and had to undergo emergency surgery after he was stabbed in the lower back. 

Now, fans across MLB are using the traumatic experience to taunt him during games. 

The 33-year-old told the San Diego Union-Tribune's Kevin Acee that fans—both home and on the road—have been jeering him in left field using the attack as fuel. He's losing his patience on the issue. 

"I need to talk to MLB," Pham said. "The vulgarity this year, the gestures, I've never seen it at this level. I want to know if this is just because fans have been gone for a year and now they're back and acting a certain way. That [stuff] shouldn’t be tolerated."

In one case, Pham said he confronted a heckler when he saw him outside of Petco Park following a game.

"Fans have been very disrespectful this year," Pham said. "I actually saw a fan who was talking [trash] to me. I saw him outside the stadium. I said, 'What’s up? You still want to talk that [trash]?' He went completely blank. That just shows you people feel entitled."

In another instance, Pham asked security to remove a fan in Houston over intolerant remarks during a game. 

Regardless of how Pham is playing—and the left fielder has been crushing the ball lately after a slow start to the year—he feels the remarks have crossed a line.

In a statement provided to the Union-Tribune, MLB reiterated its commitment to keeping both players and fans safe at the park:

"Preserving the safety of our on-field personnel and our fans is essential to us," MLB said. "We will continue to devote resources to emphasizing and enforcing the applicable laws and codes of conduct and providing an enjoyable experience at our ballparks."

In the meantime, Pham noted he's doing his best to tune out the comments. However, even when he's not at the park the taunts are never far away.

"Today, social media kind of makes it worse," Pham said. "Some fans think they're better baseball players than me, I guess."

San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. suffered an oblique injury Tuesday against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field and was pulled from the game after five innings.

The Padres later announced he was removed for precautionary reasons.

Update from the clubhouse: Fernando Tatis Jr. was removed from tonight’s game for precautionary reasons with right oblique tightness.

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 2, 2021

Tatis has rapidly emerged as one of MLB's best players, finishing third in 2019 National League Rookie of the Year voting and fourth in 2020 NL MVP voting. He accumulated 6.9 WAR across 143 appearances over his first two seasons with the Padres, per Baseball Reference.

He's posted a 1.091 OPS with 16 home runs and 12 stolen bases in 38 games so far in 2021.

The 22-year-old Dominican Republic native played in just five games to open the 2021 campaign before he landed on the 10-day injured list with a shoulder injury. More specifically, he suffered a shoulder subluxation and a slight labrum tear in his left shoulder.

Ha-Seong Kim should receive the lion's share of the playing time at short when Tatis is out of the lineup. Jorge Mateo could also get some spot starts to help fill the void.

Tatis is such a major part of the Padres offense that it's hard to predict how the group would perform without him for an extended period. The presence of Manny Machado as another cornerstone helps, but it will take a collective effort to keep the club's run-scoring rates up.

Amid a 2021 Major League Baseball season marked by historic offensive futility, there's actually some intriguing overlap between the league's best hitters and its youngest hitters.

To wit, consider the splits for hitters 24 and younger and those 25 and older:

• 24 and Younger: .244 AVG, .317 OBP, .414 SLG, 102 wRC+
• 25 and Older: .236 AVG, .313 OBP, .393 SLG, 97 wRC+

In defense of the 25-and-older crowd, that 97 wRC+ isn't a historically embarrassing figure. It's only three ticks below the average mark of 100 and a far sight better than the 92 wRC+ that 25-and-older hitters had back in 1935.

But that 102 wRC+ that the 24-and-younger crowd is working on? That's the highest such mark in 121 years of MLB's modern era.

Of the many explanations for this historic occasion, there's no better place to start than with the 20-somethings who rank first, fifth and 12th among all hitters in wRC+: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (198), Fernando Tatis Jr. (189) and Ronald Acuna Jr. (163).

---

The New and Improved Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Where the 23-year-old Acuna and 22-year-old Tatis are concerned, it's certainly fair not to be surprised at their stellar performances. Acuna was the National League Rookie of the Year in 2018, and he and Tatis have three Silver Sluggers and two top-five MVP finishes between them.

The 22-year-old Guerrero, however, is a different story.

As the son of a revered Hall of Famer and the game's No. 1 prospect at the time, Guerrero was saddled with great expectations when he debuted for the Toronto Blue Jays in April 2019. But between '19 and 2020, his first 183 major league games yielded an unspectacular .269/.336/.442 line and 24 home runs.

On the plus side, there were crucial things Guerrero did well. Per his 84th percentile strikeout rate in 2020, one of them was put the ball in play. By way of his 93rd percentile exit velocity, making loud contact was another.

There was therefore only a short leap between Guerrero and superstardom, and it wasn't hard to pinpoint how he could take it. For one, he needed to get in better shape. For two, he needed to sharpen his strike-zone discipline. Lastly, he needed to get more of his hard-hit balls in the air.

Well, he's now hitting .333/.443/.661 with 15 home runs precisely because there are check marks in all three of those boxes.

It is to Guerrero's credit that he followed through on his dedication to get in better shape this offseason. He's also reduced his rate of swings outside the zone, allowing him to become the league's fifth-biggest gainer in walk percentage.

With an average of 94.8 mph, Guerrero trails only Aaron Judge and Evan Longoria in exit velocity. He's also hitting line drives and fly balls on a career-best 46.0 percent of his batted balls, so the 117 mph, 461-foot shot he hit Monday was perhaps inevitable:

461 Feet.
117 MPH.

In other words...#PLAKATA 💥 pic.twitter.com/yVFxp4i8m8

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) May 24, 2021

The other remarkable thing about Guerrero's dominance is just how consistently it's been on display. His OPS has been over 1.000 after 41 of his 46 games. In the other five, it's still been over .900.

Never mind a potential All-Star nod and Silver Slugger Award. At this rate, Guerrero could become the player to beat for the American League MVP Award.

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The Familiar Yet Still Improved Ronald Acuna Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr.

Even if they aren't quite on Guerrero's level, both Acuna (98th percentile) and Tatis (95th) are also standouts on the exit velocity leaderboard.

Where they clearly have Guerrero beat is that they can run. Acuna and Tatis have 16 combined stolen bases, which points to how the Atlanta right fielder and the San Diego Padres shortstop have sprint speeds in the 96th and 95th percentiles.

But while it isn't exactly news that Acuna and Tatis boast elite power and speed, they have added new wrinkles.

For Acuna's part, his .276/.380/.622 line and 15 home runs have much to do with the progress he's made with his own zone discipline. He's swinging at only 16.5 percent of the pitches he's seeing outside the strike zone, which has helped pave the way to a career-high 0.7 walk-to-strikeout ratio.

Yet he's done so while also dramatically improving his coverage outside the zone, where his .267 average and .600 slugging percentage are career bests. You know, just in case you were wondering if that grand slam he hit Friday was an anomaly:

Dingerz.#HyundaiHighlight | #ForTheA pic.twitter.com/vqIPL6w9XK

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 22, 2021

Contrary to Guerrero and Acuna, Tatis is actually taking hacks outside the zone at a higher rate than he did in 2020. Because he's often coming up empty on those swings, there's an easy explanation for why his swing-and-miss rate is all the way down in the 19th percentile.

But in fairness to Tatis, separate stints on the injured list for a left shoulder injury and positive COVID-19 test haven't made it easy for him to get into a rhythm in the 30 games he's played. To boot, the former event even necessitated a change in his swing mechanics. Whereas he used to do so with one hand, he now follows through with both hands.

Judging by his .307/.380/.711 line and 13 homers, that adjustment hasn't cost him where it counts. His new follow through also seems to have boosted his already impressive all-fields power. He's slugging 1.068 on balls up the middle and to the opposite field, compared to .860 across 2019 and 2020.

Which brings us to yet another grand slam:

#SlamDiego. @tatis_jr. What more is there to say? pic.twitter.com/k9TF9bbZAW

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 23, 2021

If the season were to end today, Acuna would probably win the NL MVP Award even despite Atlanta's 23-24 record. But if Tatis can stay healthy and help keep the Padres atop the NL West, he may well have the best claim at the end of the season.

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This Youth Movement Isn't Just 3 Players

Though Guerrero, Acuna and Tatis are the headliners, they also represent not even half of the 24-and-under hitters who've done better than a 140 wRC+ over at least 100 plate appearances:

• 3B Austin Riley, ATL: 159 wRC+, 9 HR
• 3B Rafael Devers, BOS: 150 wRC+, 13 HR
• CF Trent Grisham, SDP: 149 wRC+, 6 HR  
  
• DH Yordan Alvarez, HOU: 148 wRC+, 7 HR

It's also a near certainty that Juan Soto, 22, will throw his hat into the ring as well. A stint on the IL with a strained left shoulder has contributed to a slow start, but he previously achieved historic greatness with a 152 wRC+ across his age-19, -20 and -21 seasons from 2018 to 2020.

Also worth shouting out are Miami Marlins second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (127 wRC+), St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Dylan Carlson (121) and Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette (115). And while they haven't quite clicked yet, it should surprise nobody if New York Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres (110) and Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker (110) rediscover the star-caliber form they've previously shown.

Regarding how, exactly, the youngest hitters in MLB are succeeding at a historic level while everyone else is having such a hard time, it's not necessarily because they're better pure hitters. Indeed, the 24-and-younger crowd lags behind the 25-and-older crowd in both walk rate (8.6 to 9.0) and strikeout rate (25.3 to 24.0).

But as you'd perhaps expect, the youngsters have a distinct edge in the more athletic aspects of the game. They best their elders in average exit velocity (89.3 to 88.9 mph) and baserunning value (9.1 to minus-9.1).

As long as those advantages hold and Guerrero, Acuna and Tatis keep doing their thing, MLB's youth movement should maintain forward momentum throughout the season.

The San Diego Padres moved outfielder Wil Myers and infielder Eric Hosmer to the injured list because of the league's health and safety protocols, they announced Wednesday. 

Brian O'Grady and Nick Ramirez were called up from the team's Triple-A affiliate, and Patrick Kivlehan was added to the major league roster. 

Myers and Hosmer were taken out of Tuesday's game against the Colorado Rockies and are the latest Padres to be sidelined by the health and safety protocols. Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar and Jorge Mateo were moved to the injured list Tuesday before the game.

Tatis and Myers have tested positive for COVID-19, while the other players are going through protocols for contact tracing, manager Jayce Tingler told reporters.

The league's protocols dictate that players with a positive test must isolate for at least 10 days, while close contacts will quarantine for seven days and must test negative for the virus after the fifth day. 

"You’re not going to replace them, but what we are going to do is we’re going to show up, we’re going to compete,” Tingler said. “Nobody’s going to carry that load. It’s going to take a group of guys chipping in, working together." 

Hosmer replied to the announcement:

pic.twitter.com/GtjKGdFvzZ

— Eric Hosmer (@TheRealHos305) May 12, 2021

San Diego, which is in second place in the NL West at 20-16, will finish the series with the Rockies in a doubleheader on Wednesday. 

San Diego Padres right fielder Wil Myers left his team's 8-1 road win over the Colorado Rockies in the third inning after testing positive for COVID-19.

Padres manager Jayce Tingler told reporters the news on Myers, who is asymptomatic. In addition, first baseman Eric Hosmer left the game in the eighth due to contact tracing.

Earlier Tuesday, the Padres announced that Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar and Jorge Mateo were placed on the injured list due to MLB's health and safety protocols.

Tingler told reporters pregame that Tatis tested positive for COVID-19 but is asymptomatic. Profar and Mateo were close contacts.

Per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com, five of the 12 Padres' position players are now out because of testing positive for COVID-19 or contact tracing.

Tucupita Marcano, who was called up from Triple-A El Paso on Tuesday following the news on Tatis, Profar and Mateo, replaced Myers in the lineup. John Andreoli, who was also placed on the Padres' roster Tuesday, took over for Hosmer.

As for the game, Manny Machado's five RBI paced the Padres, who improved to 20-16. The Rockies fell to 12-23.

The San Diego Padres will be without shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. for the immediate future.

On Tuesday, they announced they placed Tatis, Jurickson Profar and Jorge Mateo on the injured list because of MLB's health and safety protocols. The team will announce corresponding roster moves prior to Tuesday's game against the Colorado Rockies.

Manager Jayce Tingler told reporters Tatis tested positive for COVID-19, while Profar and Mateo are in contact tracing.

Tatis spent time on the injured list this season because of a shoulder injury suffered during a swing. Fortunately for the 22-year-old and the Padres, he avoided surgery.

In 26 games this year, he is slashing .240/.315/.552 with nine home runs, 14 RBI and seven stolen bases.

While the slash numbers are down from his .277/.366/.571 line during the coronavirus pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves is the only player in the National League with more home runs.

Look for Ha-Seong Kim or Jake Cronenworth to play shortstop while Tatis is sidelined, especially since the versatile Mateo is not an option.

The Padres will also be without Profar, who can play across the outfield and infield. He is slashing .234/.333/.308 with one home run, 10 RBI and five stolen bases in 34 games.

San Diego sits in second place in the National League West at 19-16, which is 2.5 games behind the San Francisco Giants.

San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. has put up an impressive stat line in his first 162 games.

The league announced Sunday that the 22-year-old is the first player to post at least 40 home runs and 30 stolen bases in that time frame. 

The shortstop has hit seven home runs and stolen five bases through 19 games this season—his third in the league—to accomplish the feat. 

His 162nd game came Saturday in a 6-2 victory against the San Francisco Giants, when he walked, stole a base and scored twice. 

Tatis is slashing .236/.317/.569 with 11 RBI this year.

He earned a Silver Slugger nod in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign after hitting .277/.366/.571 with 45 RBI, 17 home runs and 11 stolen bases, numbers that could have surpassed his strong debut from 2019 in a season that was limited by injuries.

As a rookie, Tatis blasted 22 home runs with 16 steals and 53 RBI, hitting .317/.379/.590. He finished third in voting for the league's Rookie of the Year award.

While there have been several other players who have starred similarly—nine players since 1961 have had at least 77 combined steals and home runs according to the Elias Sports Bureau—Tatis is the only player to post the 40-30 split (h/t Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune). 

The star will have the chance to keep making history with the Padres, who signed him to a $14-year, $340 million deal in February. 

San Diego Padres manager Jayce Tingler defended shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. against allegations that he was sign-stealing against the Los Angeles Dodgers, calling the accusations "ridiculous" in a chat with reporters Tuesday (h/t Bob Nightengale of USA Today).

"I know 100 percent he wasn't peeking at signs," Tingler added.

Tatis was accused of sneaking a glance at Dodgers catcher Will Smith before hitting his second home run off L.A. starting pitcher Trevor Bauer on Saturday. It was Tatis' fourth homer of the series.

Who's your Padre? pic.twitter.com/ocHMhHvGrm

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 25, 2021

L.A. won anyway, 5-4, but it lost the four-game home series to San Diego.

Bauer notably broke down his thoughts on the matter in a video (8:20 mark) that also covered Tatis' celebrations:

"That's the type of stuff that would get you hit in other games," Bauer said about Tatis' alleged sign-stealing. "Now, I'm mild mannered about it. ... 

"Flip the bat and do all that stuff, fine. If you're going to look at the signs, not OK, and if you do it again, the team that you're playing probably isn't going to take too kindly to it, and there might have to be some on-field stuff. ... 

"That is disrespecting your opponent, looking at their signs, stuff like that. Whereas the bat flips and celebrating with your teammates is fine, in my opinion."

Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer defended Tatis. 

"That was maybe a little bit of confusion on their part," Hosmer said (h/t AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). "I don't think Tati was looking at signs. I've never really seen him do that. I certainly didn't see it last night."

There is no shortage of juice in the Dodgers-Padres rivalry.

The two teams clearly don't like each other much as they compete for the National League West title, and there have already been some dramatic moments, such as the benches clearing in extra innings and Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw getting into a shouting match with the Padres' Jurickson Profar in mid-April.

The Dodgers and Padres will meet again for a three-game series June 21-23 at San Diego's Petco Park.

If there was any doubt that Fernando Tatis Jr. is the new Face of Major League Baseball, there ought to be less now after the San Diego Padres shortstop boldly resubmitted his application over the weekend.

After a 1-for-4 night in San Diego's 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, Tatis came alive and went 7-for-15 with five home runs as the Padres won two of the next three games to take the series.

That quintet of long balls featured two each off Cy Young Award winners Clayton Kershaw and Trevor Bauer—and averaged a sturdy 411 feet. And inasmuch as anything relating to a 22-year-old with only 158 major league games under his belt can be "customary," Tatis indeed celebrated each dinger with his customary aplomb.

Because of accusations he tried to sneak a peek at Dodgers catcher Will Smith's signs before his second home run off Bauer on Saturday, Tatis' weekend showcase wasn't entirely without controversy.

But if Tatis is sweating it, it didn't show in his tweeted reply to Bauer:

Tranquilo hijo . pic.twitter.com/lRe2hBLmR8

— Fernando Tatis Jr. (@tatis_jr) April 25, 2021

Or in English: "Take it easy, my son."

That's Tatis for you, a player who's keenly aware of just how talented he is. There might have been fierce resistance to such a player not too long ago, but there are good reasons why he's different.

   

The Game Has Changed

Now then, let's talk about Shane Victorino.

The "Flyin' Hawaiian" had a darn good career from 2003 to 2015, yet his high point was surely when he punched the Boston Red Sox's ticket to the 2013 World Series with a grand slam against the Detroit Tigers in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

As any normal person would, Victorino let his emotions out as he jumped for joy and pounded his chest.

In the aftermath, however, Victorino was actually apologetic to the Tigers. As he later explained:

"I've always been on that other side. I've never liked players who like to [show off]. That's just my upbringing; my parents taught me never to be cocky, never to be arrogant because just as fast as you go that way, when you strike out are you going to do the same things? That's the fine line. Go out there and play the game correctly. People understand that in moments like that you can show a little more emotion."

As baffling as it was, Victorino's apology wasn't necessarily surprising.

That was, after all, a time when to "play the game correctly" required players to go about their business like so many planks of plywood: stiff and flat, with nary a distinguishing feature. And whether it was Jose Fernandez (RIP), Carlos Gomez, Jose Bautista or whomever, non-conformers weren't exactly welcome.

Now in 2021, baseball's cultural revolution is ongoing.

Once a deadly sin, bat flips and home run celebrations are now an MLB-approved cardinal virtue. Particularly during Players' Weekend, individuality is not only allowed but encouraged. Further evidence of MLB's embrace of its new era can be seen in its television promotions, such as "Rewrite the Rules" from 2018 and "Let the Kids Play" from 2018 and 2019.

Ostensibly starting with Mike Trout and Bryce Harper in 2012, the league's star power has gone from the old to the young in recent years. And before Tatis, luminaries Manny Machado, Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Juan Soto arose as defining stars for the sport's growing Latino population.

As he fits under both umbrellas, Tatis perhaps should have become just another face in the crowd upon his arrival in 2019. Yet it only took until his 108th game for his destiny as the face to come into focus.

       

Tatis Has Obliterated Everything, Including the Unwritten Rules

When the Padres acquired Tatis from the Chicago White Sox in June 2016, he was more noteworthy for being the son of a former big leaguer than for being any kind of blue-chip talent.

Next thing anyone knew, he was a top-10 prospect at the outset of 2018 and arguably baseball's No. 1 prospect a year later. Courtesy of his spring training performance, his next trick was to force the Padres to throw service-time considerations to the wind and put him on their Opening Day roster for 2019.

Tatis' tone-setting tour through his rookie season continued with a pronounced bat drop—not his best work, but nonetheless a solid proof of concept for his brand of on-field swagger—on his first career home run and finished with a .317/.379/.590 batting line with 22 home runs, 16 stolen bases and 4.2 rWAR.

Not bad considering that hamstring and back injuries limited him to 84 games.

Tatis' hot hitting carried over into 2020, wherein he had a pair of two-homer games within a 10-day span in August. Notably, the capper of the latter was an emphatic grand slam on a 3-0 pitch opposite the Texas Rangers.

Fernando Tatis Jr.

El Niño.

The face of baseball. pic.twitter.com/Y5VF5EIBKt

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 18, 2020

Swinging for the fences on a 3-0 pitch with a 10-3 lead? That would have been a faux pas back in the day, and at least one person—namely Rangers manager Chris Woodward—still considered it as such in 2020.

Yet even though Tatis initially issued a mea culpa, he curiously didn't end up at the bottom of a dog pile of "play the game correctly" critics. On the contrary, coming to his defense were legends such as Johnny Bench and Reggie Jackson and contemporaries including Tim Anderson, Eduardo Rodriguez and even Bauer.

If it all had the feel of something big, that's because it was. Though it had been clear for years that the old-school way of doing things was dying at the hands of the next generation of stars, Tatis' grand slam was the killing blow.

        

Tatis Has What It Takes to Stick as the 'Face of MLB'

As titles go, "Face of MLB" is as elusive as it is unofficial.

The honor surely belonged to Derek Jeter as he wrapped up his legendary career with the New York Yankees in 2014. MLB Network then had fans vote for the new Face of MLB ahead of the 2015 season, and San Francisco Giants star Buster Posey emerged as the winner.

Because that competition proved to be a one-off, the Face of MLB became less a matter of confirmation and more one of nomination. Popular picks in recent years included Harper, Aaron Judge and Mookie Betts, though it was perhaps just a matter of time before the mantle defaulted to the game's best player.

Especially according to wins above replacement, that's been Trout ever since he took his place in center field for the Los Angeles Angels in 2012. And after years of shunning fame worthy of his accolades, he seemed to finally accept his place as the Face of MLB when he delivered the crucial last line of the league's second "Let the Kids Play" promo in 2019.

But even then, there was a sense Trout wasn't so much sitting on the throne as he was a steward of it. For one thing, his charisma has never measured up to his talent. For another, it's hard to be the Face of MLB when your team can't get you onto the big stage that is October baseball.

Which brings us back to Tatis, starting with how his talent-charisma gap is practically nonexistent.

His numbers with the Padres—i.e., a .296/.370/.587 line with 46 home runs, 31 stolen bases and 7.7 rWAR in those 158 games—have him on an early track to Cooperstown and are backed by metrics that confirm he really is that dynamic.

To wit, he presently ranks in the 98th percentile in exit velocity and in the 95th percentile in sprint speed. His throws, meanwhile, have been clocked in the mid-90s.

And contrary to his apology in the wake of the grand slam against the Rangers, Tatis is done apologizing for doing things his way. Indeed, that's the entire conceit of his status as the cover boy for the latest entry in the long-running video game series MLB The Show.

The game has changed. Announcing Fernando Tatis Jr. as the cover athlete for MLB The Show 21, arriving April 20: https://t.co/bcmeB2oJYT pic.twitter.com/Ve5A6nNJqB

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) February 1, 2021

So confident are the Padres in Tatis' ability and marketability, of course, that they signed him to what was then the third-largest contract in MLB history in February. With $340 million coming his way over the next 14 years, he won't be lacking for money any time soon.

Though San Diego isn't the biggest or most storied of baseball's markets, Tatis likewise shouldn't be lacking for exposure. After snapping a 14-year playoff drought in 2020, the Padres now boast excellent postseason (94.2 percent, according to FanGraphs) and World Series (10.9 percent) chances in 2021 after adding aces Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove in the offseason and starting 13-11.

But while all this puts a sort of "real deal" shine on Tatis' meteoric rise as the Face of MLB, he isn't altogether safe from usurpers. In his case, the ailments he suffered in 2019 and especially the shoulder trouble he's experienced this year cast the injury bug as a threat to his rule. 

For now, though, the Face of MLB simply fits with Tatis better than it does anyone else.

He's one of the most purely talented and most productive players in the sport, and he's neither shy of nor toils far from a spotlight that's never been more drawn to players such as him. Even if it doesn't last forever, he and everyone else should enjoy it while it does.

   

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.