Based on the season wins total posted last year by the top MLB betting sites, you could tell the San Diego Padres had high expectations in 2023. However, the Padres started slowly without Fernando Tatis in the lineup. Tatis had multiple wrist injuries and was caught using performance-enhancing drugs, which increased his time away from baseball by another 80 days.
Tatis said that he inadvertently took medication to treat ringworm, and it contained a substance illegal for the game of baseball. He didn’t appeal the ban and owned up to his mistake. Therefore, he only played in 130 games in 2021, missed the entire 2022 season and played just 141 games in 2023.
2023 was the most games he’s played since joining the big leagues, and he has to continue to make that a common theme. Tatis Jr. is one of the best players in the MLB and is needed by his teammates.
This list has some serious pop. 💪@MLBNetwork’s #Top10RightNow continues with the game’s best right fielders! pic.twitter.com/uqAhnoVyD8
— MLB (@MLB) January 17, 2024
San Diego’s Depth Chart
It’s only the middle of January. However, the Padres won’t have the same roster as last year. San Diego traded Juan Soto to the New York Yankees and has a rotation that still needs arms. Blake Snell, who pitched effectively for the Padres last season (won the NL Cy Young Award), is seeking a major extension and could end up somewhere else.
If Snell doesn’t come back to San Diego, the Padres would have Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, and Michael King as their top three rotation pieces. The other two would be Matt Waldron and Pedro Avila, now that Seth Lugo also walked from San Diego.
Where do you want to see Blake Snell sign? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/v3K5ZGQuhQ
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 17, 2024
The Padres still have stars like Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth, and Xander Bogarts, but San Diego didn’t make any additions this year to help the team. They spent too much money on other players last year and went 82-80. This year, they’re tearing the team down slightly to get back to a normal payroll.
Fernando Tatis in 2023
Tatis finished his fourth season in the MLB in 2023. He played in a career-high 141 games and took 575 at-bats. In those 141 games, he added fewer runs than in 2021 and only hit 25 home runs in 2023 after smacking 42 home runs in 478 at-bats in 2023. His power surge collapsed, and he only hit .257 with a .322 OBP.
These were extremely low numbers compared to his first three years with the Padres. Tatis Jr. began his career in 2019 and hit .317 with 334 at-bats. He hit .277 in 2020 and smacked an average of .282 in 2021 before his suspension came in 2022. In 2023, he only hit .257 and had an OPS of .770, which was incredibly low compared to his first three seasons. In 2024, Tatis Jr. will have less protection in the lineup and might not have as much opportunity to drive in runs or score runs.
San Diego isn’t going to be better than last year’s team in terms of talent. Tatis Jr. will have to lead, and that’s not something he’s been very good at. Instead, Tatis Jr. acts more immature and needs to be reminded about it by his teammates. Manny Machado has even yelled at him in the dugout during some of Tatis Jr.’s bad moments.
I’m gonna tell my grandkids about the historic 2024 season that Fernando Tatis Jr. had https://t.co/Ax5X48S1rB pic.twitter.com/hNCy3nRkue
— Al Scott (@AlScott1998) January 12, 2024
What To Expect In 2024
Tatis Jr. has all the tools and talent to be a top player in the MLB. He proved it in 2019 to 2021 and is still just 25 years old. We don’t know if he ever intentionally used performance-enhancing drugs.
However, his stats would indicate that those PEDs helped him early on in his career. He had a major drop-off statistically in 2023 and has had two pretty bad wrist injuries that have even forced him to change positions from infielder to outfielder. The only time it would be okay for Tatis Jr. to see a drop off in average and on-base percentage is if he’s swatting home runs at a high rate.
For example, in 2021, he hit 42 home runs in just 130 games and 478 at-bats. A .282 average with 42 home runs and 97 RBIs in 130 games is acceptable. But it’s not when the power surge isn’t there anymore.
In 2023, Tatis Jr. saw about 100 more at-bats than in 2021. However, he scored eight fewer runs and had just 13 more hits. He also walked nine times less. However, his strikeouts went down, proving that he’s at least seeing the ball well enough to put the ball in play better.
2024 will be a big mystery for Tatis Jr. but also for the Padres. San Diego still needs to make moves before Spring Training to help stars like Tatis Jr. progress and perform in 2024. For now, you can expect the same stats as his 2023 season.
