MIAMI — It’s handy to have another superstar.
The Padres announced Tuesday they have changed their scheduled Sept. 7 giveaway from a Fernando Tatis Jr. bobblehead to a Juan Soto City Connect “shirsey” giveaway.
Tatis was suspended 80 games Friday for violating MLB’s performance enhancing drug policy, 10 days after the Padres acquired Soto as part of a mammoth trade with the Washington Nationals.
The “shirsey,” which is a T-shirt designed to look like a jersey, will be in the style of the team’s City Connect uniforms and have Soto’s name and number on the back.
The Padres already had a Manny Machado bobblehead giveaway this season. Virtually every seat in the lower bowl and Gallagher Square has been sold for the Sept. 7 game. Several seats are available in the upper deck and on the secondary market.
Tatis is expected to meet Thursday with Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller and on Saturday with team Chairman Peter Seidler. Tatis also plans to address teammates at some point in the first few days the Padres are back in town following the conclusion of this road trip Wednesday.
Tatis is allowed to be at team facilities and work out with the team, but he cannot be on the field working out after gates open. The plan for how often Tatis is at Petco Park, or whether he will be, is not known.
Joe is a go
There is still a bobblehead giveaway coming.
One of the most iconic accomplishments in Padres history will be celebrated Thursday night when Joe Musgrove’s bobblehead, showing the moment after he completed the franchise’s only no-hitter, is given away to the first 35,000 fans through the gates.
“Bobbleheads are always cool,” said Musgrove, who grew up in San Diego. “It was something as a kid, you were dying to get. Anytime they had a giveaway, you had to be there.”
This isn’t his first bobblehead. But it is the first that will be given away at a ballpark.
The Pirates scheduled a Musgrove bobblehead giveaway in 2020. It featured him mid-windup, wearing a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off. The whereabouts of most of those 20,000 bobbleheads are unknown after COVID kept fans from attending games that season. Musgrove did get “a couple hundred.” He gave them to his mom, and he guessed they are in his parents’ garage.
“The first one is definitely the most exciting and the coolest,” Musgrove said. “But now to be back in San Diego and get one here is really cool.”
Sticking with Bell
Josh Bell got a day off Tuesday from first base, but he remained in the lineup batting fourth and serving as designated hitter.
Asked if he considered a change with Bell, who is batting .140 with just one extra-base hit in 43 at-bats with the Padres, manager Bob Melvin quickly replied, “Nope.”
Melvin likes the flexibility the switch-hitting Bell provides and believes he will revert to the player that arrived in San Diego with Soto on Aug. 2 hitting .301/.384/.493 with 14 home runs.
“He has performed all year,” Melvin said. “He has gone through a little bit of a stretch here, but he’s gonna be a big piece for us. We need him to perform in that spot. And I know he’s going to.”
Bell, who met with Melvin on Tuesday, acknowledged recently he has been “trying to do a bit too much.”
Wil Myers started at first base Tuesday.
Medal moment
Pitcher Nick Martinez brought his Olympic silver medal, earned playing for United States in the last Summer Olympics, to the clubhouse on Monday. Teammates were enthralled.
Martinez, who is one of multiple Padres players who makes his offseason home in Miami, was asked where winning the medal ranks in his list of accomplishments.
“One,” he said quickly. “When you’re drafted and you’re playing in the minor leagues, you always have in the back of your mind that if you work hard enough, if you keep at it, you will get your chance in the majors. For the Olympics, so much more had to fall in place. … I felt incredibly lucky. It was just special.”
Martinez, who played professionally in Japan the past four seasons before signing with the Padres this offseason, allowed one run in six innings in the United States’ 2-0 Gold Medal game loss to Japan.
Notable
— Padres pitchers entered Tuesday’s game with 63 quality starts. But the team was just 44-19 (.698) in those games. Here are how the other teams in the top five in quality starts had fared through Monday: Astros (52-17, .754); Mariners (37-19, .661); Phillies (39-16, .709); Mets (40-13, .755); Guardians (38-15, .717).
— Reliever Pierce Johnson, out since the season’s third week with forearm tendinitis, threw another bullpen session Tuesday. It isn’t known when he will throw to hitters, but that time is believed to be approaching. Said Johnson: “Moving in the right direction. I feel good.”
