Late to start, spring training is not off to a good start for the Padres.
Fernando Tatis Jr., the team's $340 million shortstop who led the National League with 42 home runs last season, has a fractured left wrist and probably will need surgery. President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller announced the somber news Monday as the team prepared for its first workout here.
Tatis is expected to miss a significant portion of the season. Preller mentioned Tatis could return in about three months. Former NFL team physician and orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Chao said a return in three months from a scaphoid fracture is the best-case scenario. Chao said the location of the injury inhibits healing, and he predicted the injury having sat for so long without treatment means Tatis will need a bone graft. The regular season begins April 7.
"It caught all of us off guard," Tatis said. "I was working out. I was doing my activities. It was getting worse over time while I was getting heavier in my workouts. It was a really big surprise. ... It's bad. It's terrible. I feel like everybody is disappointed, especially me. We have a pretty good chance this year as a team. I just want to be out there for my teammates and for the fans."
Tatis, who was in what was described as a minor motorcycle accident in early December, said he began feeling pain in the wrist shortly thereafter.
"That was just bruises," Tatis said Monday regarding the accident, for which he did receive medical treatment. "I didn't feel that much at the time. It was just one or two weeks (later) like when you jam your wrist sliding at second base. It was kind of the same feeling. I was swinging my ax at my ranch. I was feeling good. It got us by surprise."
Preller said team doctors felt the fracture was "a few months old" and that he aggravated it in recent weeks.
"I think to pinpoint exactly (when) it was, it's hard to say," Preller said. "... We've talked to him about the accident that he had in the offseason. It just it feels like, from hearing him, (the wrist injury was) something he had throughout the offseason."
Because of the lockout, only team doctors could communicate with players from December 2 through the labor impasses ending this past Thursday. No other personnel was allowed to speak to players or their representatives in that time, and the team could not bring Tatis in for an examination after the accident.
"It definitely could have been a different story," Tatis said.
"It was a different offseason," Preller said. "... I think when the report came out about the motorcycle accident in the Dominican that we were able to, through medical team and then reaching through his representatives to talk to him about things at that time and (information) basically just came back that it was bumps and bruises and more scrapes that he was concerned about. ... He never thought about a fracture or wrist or anything like that."
The team became aware of the possibility of an issue with Tatis' wrist at the end of last week but did not know the extent of the injury until X-rays were done Sunday.
Tatis said the pain became more acute about a month ago when he was swinging.
"It was nothing crazy," he said. "I felt like it was something we could work through. I always play with pain. I felt I could get it through, but this time we obviously couldn't get it."
It is standard for contracts to have clauses in them prohibiting extracurricular pursuits that have a higher probability of resulting in injury. Those clauses generally allow for a team to recoup all or a portion of the money owed to a player. One team source said it is unlikely the Padres would pursue that route.
Tatis, who is due $5 million in 2022 in the second year of his 14-year contract, said he could not be certain when the accident happened.
"I had a couple incidents," he said. "It could be anything. I had one more fall, but it was nothing crazy. It was just small pain. It goes away when you do normal activities. But when you really try to ramp it up and push it, that's when it comes back."
Utility infielder Ha-seong Kim seems the most likely fill-in for Tatis, at least at the start of spring, with second baseman Jake Cronenworth also sliding over at times. The team's top prospect, CJ Abrams, is also a shortstop.
"That's obviously a hit, but it gives somebody else an opportunity," manager Bob Melvin said. "... We're talking about one guy. Obviously, he's extremely important, but that should motivate us to hold down the fort until he gets back. And that's the way we're gonna approach it. ... (Kim) is going to get a great opportunity here. But Cronenworth can play there. We'll see where we are with Abrams down the road, too."
The 22-year-old Tatis is entering his fourth big-league season and has only in the COVID-shortened 2020 season avoided injuries.
His 81 home runs, .292 batting average and .965 OPS compare favorably to many all-time greats at the start of their careers. But he missed 77 games with hamstring and back injuries in 2019 and 22 games to a recurring shoulder injury in '21.
"I think we've seen it with other players in the past," Preller said. "I think some guys, it was an injury bug for a year or two and then they go on for the next seven or eight years and they don't have an issue. … We have talked about responsibility and what that looks like. We've had all those conversations."
Tatis surprised many people in and around the organization by opting to not have surgery on his partially torn labrum this offseason. He and Preller said Monday the shoulder had healed well.
"The shoulder is in a perfect situation," Tatis said. "I feel the doctors were surprised how good it was."
