Shortstop priests superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. left the game on Monday against the Giants with an apparent left elbow injury, AJ Cassavell from MLB.com was among those to report. Tatis hit on a hit against the right-handed Giants Anthony DeSclafani and then it fell “crumpled in a pile”, by Cassavell. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area provided video on Twitter.
A serious injury to Tatis would not only be a massive loss for the Padres, who have hopes for the World Series this year, but for the baseball game as a whole. The 22-year-old was one of the sport’s hottest prospects before making it to the championships, and so far he has lived up to that status in the greats. Going back to his debut in 2019, Tatis reduced .298 / .372 / .577 (148 wRC +) with 40 home runs, 27 stolen bases and 6.5 fWAR in just 147 games and 648 plate appearances. He is among the main reasons why the Fathers look like an elite team on paper, not to mention one of baseball’s greatest talents.
Tatis was so productive during his short career that the Fathers hired him for a jaw-dropping 14 year old extension, $ 340 million near the end of February. The Fathers obviously did so with the confidence that Tatis would remain healthy, but now they may be dealing with a disastrous scenario with just a few games in their contract.