The Fathers hope they will never have to see Fernando Tatis Jr. play in another uniform.
The team and its wonderful shortstop took a giant step toward that goal on Wednesday by agreeing to the terms of a 14-year contract, according to several sources.
The deal is worth $ 340 million and is the longest in MLB history. It is the largest contract awarded to a player not yet eligible for refereeing and is the third richest overall, behind the $ 365 million in 12 years that Mookie Betts received from the Dodgers last season and the $ 360 million for 10 years that Mike Trout received in 2019.
Tatis, who turned 22 on January 2 and has two years of service, has yet to play the equivalent of a full season. But he finished fourth in the National League MVP vote in 2020, after hitting 0.277 with 0.937 OPS (percentage of strikes on the base more).
In 143 games since the start of the 2019 season, Tatis has an average of 0.301 and 0.956 OPS. These are numbers that compare favorably to the best players in history at that point in their careers. Tatis’ OPS, for example, is one point lower than Lou Gehrig in his first 143 games and 10 points higher than that of Mike Trout.
His defense at the shortstop was spectacular from the start and last year he balanced himself to become more consistent. He led all the shortstops and took second place in the championships last season with seven outs above average, a metric that apparently measures how many outs a player saved compared to an average player in his position.
The Fathers and Tatis anticipated this pact by several months. The sides agreed over the summer that they would start serious negotiations in the off-season.
Padres general manager AJ Preller visited the Dominican Republic shortly after the new year and told Tatis that he would soon start discussions with the player’s agent. The Fathers made their first formal offer in late January.
Preller and Dan Lozano, the Tatis agent, spoke regularly over the following weeks, discussing parameters and commercial proposals. Tatis performed at the Peoria Sports Complex on Sunday, and there was optimism on all sides that they were close to an agreement.
Finally, on Wednesday, after a few more proposals sent and received about the complicated pact, the team informed Lozano that the last terms discussed were acceptable.
Tatis’ contract is much longer and richer than notable pacts given to other young players of renown in recent years. Most of these contracts generally span only two or three seasons in the player’s free agency year.
Ronald Acuña Jr. won a $ 100 million contract for eight years in 2019, when he was 21, after playing less than a season. Alex Bregman, then 25, was awarded a $ 100 million five-year contract in 1919, after playing two more seasons. Trout, 22 at the time, won six years and $ 144 million in 2014 after playing for more than two seasons.