LOS ANGELES — Fernando Tatis Jr. is expected back "mid-August-ish."
That isn't necessarily a surprise. But it can be considered the most official timeline yet, as stated Sunday afternoon by Padres manager Bob Melvin.
That could mean the Padres' series in Miami beginning Aug. 15 or the homestand beginning Aug. 18. Melvin said Friday in Washington is "probably too soon."
Tatis started at shortstop and went 0-for-3 in the second game of his rehab assignment Sunday with Double-A San Antonio. He is likely headed to Triple-A El Paso in the coming week.
Tatis, who had surgery to repair a fractured left wrist, went 0-for-2 with two walks while serving as designated hitter in his first game in San Antonio. He will play center field during his stay in the minors as well.
The Padres plan for him to be in the lineup in all three spots when he returns to the majors.
The team wants to keep Ha-Seong Kim playing semi-regularly, and Tatis can also spell struggling Trent Grisham in center. The DH allows Tatis to remain in the lineup but also stay off his feet.
"The part that you worry about is that there was no spring training," Melvin said. "There was no lead-up to this. There's really nothing he can do other than condition his legs and so forth leading up to this thing. So we'll see how it goes. But he's not going to be out in the field every day.
"We're late in the season now, so when he comes back … there's not a lot of time left. So we want him here as long as we possibly can because he has a huge impact. He's one of the premier players in the game. We'll monitor him day-to-day to see how he feels. To this point, he hasn't really felt anything as far as the wrist goes, which is great. I've had some other players that have had that injury and they felt a little bit. It wasn't till the next year that they felt great. But to this point, he's felt good. But it's gonna be hard not to look each and every day to try to get him to lineup somewhere."
